


If There's a Bright Center to the Universe

by asingerofsongs, MayGlenn



Series: Stars and Skies [27]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Character Death (bad guy), Dreams and Nightmares, F/M, Finn is a Skywalker (Star Wars), Fix-It, Interrogation, M/M, Married Life, Married Sex, Multi, Not Canon Compliant, Oral Sex, Pregnancy, Rey Kenobi, Twins, You Thought We'd Let That Movie Slide Didn't You?, You thought wrong, farming, parenting
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:48:00
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 22,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21874849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/asingerofsongs/pseuds/asingerofsongs, https://archiveofourown.org/users/MayGlenn/pseuds/MayGlenn
Summary: “I...just can’t believe the Republic is moving to Jakku,” Finn said, where he sat across from Leia at her desk. They were drinking Corellian brandy to toast Finn’s last official day as a Colonel in the Resistance/Republic Army. “It’s like they wanted me to quit.”“Only the government is moving there, Finn. It's a very central planet. And you should see the place, I hear it’s been totally terraformed, and they’re building a state-of-the-art Senate,” Leia said.“Yeah, I don’t see you rushing off to join them.”“Well, no. It’s Jakku,” Leia said, smiling at her nephew and raising her glass. “Hating sand runs in the family.”She had had months to get used to the idea, but it still amazed her every day. It was like having her son back, but an easy, normal, good version that wasn’t a ticking time bomb that would go Dark side if you made any sudden moves. So easy and normal and good, in fact, that he was leaving the martial life behind him for the marital one. For good. Rebuilding his lightsword into a turboplough, as the saying went.Han would have been proud of him, she thought.
Relationships: Finn/Rey (Star Wars), Poe Dameron/Finn, Poe Dameron/Finn/Rey, Poe Dameron/Rey
Series: Stars and Skies [27]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/411858
Comments: 76
Kudos: 86





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay, folks, but we're still going! Slowly but surely you can expect more fluff, more drama and hurt/comfort, a story revolving around the *real* heroes, and how about a vaguely realistic kylodemption with actual consequences??

“I...just can’t believe the Republic is moving to Jakku,” Finn said, where he sat across from Leia at her desk. They were drinking Corellian brandy to toast Finn’s last official day as a Colonel in the Resistance/Republic Army. “It’s like they wanted me to quit.” 

“Only the government is moving there, Finn. It's a very central planet. And you should see the place, I hear it’s been totally terraformed, and they’re building a state-of-the-art Senate,” Leia said. 

“Yeah, I don’t see you rushing off to join them.” 

“Well,  _ no _ . It’s Jakku,” Leia said, smiling at her nephew and raising her glass. “Hating sand runs in the family.” 

She had had months to get used to the idea, but it still amazed her every day. It was like having her son back, but an easy, normal, good version that wasn’t a ticking time bomb that would go Dark side if you made any sudden moves. So easy and normal and good, in fact, that he was leaving the martial life behind him for the marital one. For good. Rebuilding his lightsword into a turboplough, as the saying went. 

Han would have been proud of him, she thought. 

“How’s Rey doing?”

"She's  _ Rey _ ," Finn said, his voice fond and frustrated and resigned all at once. "So she's fine, of course, and probably also working too hard." 

She had been helping Breha with the speeder when he left, because it had blown some fuse or other in one of the many upgrades it'd been given over the years.

"I thought pregnant people were supposed to slow down, but Rey...hasn't," he admitted to Leia. "She was literally trying to do a handstand the other day, with the Force, because she was curious if she could while she was pregnant."

He laughed, then, and took a small sip of the brandy when Leia raised her eyebrows at him incredulously. 

"And you would think that no, of course she couldn't. But,  _ Rey _ , so of course she did." He shook his head. 

“Finn,” Leia said, setting her glass down. “She’s pregnant, not dying. Don’t tell me you’re trying to baby her.” 

Finn shook his head so vehemently he nearly spilled his brandy.

"No! Of course not! She's Rey, it would be pointless anyway," he answered. Even if he  _ did _ think she should probably take it easier than she was. "I just thought, you know, that maybe she'd try taking it easy once she hit 7 months, but that was a month ago, and she's still doing Force handstands for fun."

It  _ had _ been pretty impressive. He was a little sorry Poe had missed it.

...

Poe, of course, was hardly ever home after transitioning to full Admiral of the Republic Navy. He was overseeing the senatorial move to Jakku, and also getting accustomed to his job and the suddenly even more public life he led. He spoke with more famous people in a day than he had in his whole life, when General Leia Organa had been the first celebrity he really knew. 

But now he was on his way home, a day early, for Finn’s last day on base before he surrendered his badge and weapon. His hand tapped the captain's chair of the transport he was riding in. 

His pilot was Jess Pava, who laughed at him again.

"Poe, we're doing .5 past light speed. Can you stop the tapping?"

"You're supposed to address me as  _ Admiral _ ," Poe said snitily. "And I can tap wherever I want to. Because,  _ admiral _ ."

"Act like an admiral and I'll address you as one," Jess shot back. Someone had to keep her friend from getting too full of himself, after all, and no one else was there to hear her gleefully disregard regulation and the chain of command. 

“I’ll have you flogged, or—thrown into the brig or something,” Poe said, affecting a Core accent. 

Jess just laughed at him. 

"We'll get there in plenty of time," she added reassuringly, but there was little else she could do. The transport couldn't go any faster without running the risk of falling apart around them, and she wasn't going to risk that when Poe could just as easily learn some patience. 

“I know, I just—I wanted to be there for Finn—and Leia,  _ gods _ , what’s she gonna do without him?” 

“...And maybe your pregnant wife?” 

“Well, yes, but she definitely doesn’t  _ need  _ me to be there for her,” Poe said carefully. “If I ever tell anyone any differently she’ll cut my dick off.” 

“Just keeping you humble, sir.” 

“ _ Oh _ , yeah. Very humble.” 

...

Rey sat in meditation, in a way able to sense their conversation, but only as much as she was able to sense Finn’s, too, at the same time, and that she knew where Sam was, and everyone else whose luminosity in the Force she had learned to recognize. 

She could feel the beings inside her, too, the daughters she felt like she had always known, even though they were only just entering into this galaxy. 

That made her so happy that one, if not both of them, kicked her for joy, jolting her out of her meditative state. 

Luke and Mara Jade were still meditating, eyes closed and legs crossed, as were the sixteen children and young people in their new “Force school.” Anyone who showed a bit of sensitivity, or interest, since the Awakening, was invited to participate, and no one was forced to. 

Mara opened one eye as Rey got up—several of the smaller children also fell out of meditation to watch Rey sort of roll to her feet. Nimbly, but it was still a roll. She was bigger around than BB-8! 

“Bathroom. Again,” Rey laughed. “You’d think they’d find another organ to use as a boloball in there. But no.” She could do headstands, yes, even at this size, but couldn’t be five minutes from the facilities. “Be right back.”

Mara only smiled and motioned to the children who'd stopped meditating to continue as she closed her eye. Luke, though, huffed a short laugh and opened both eyes as Sam, tucked in his lap with his eyes resolutely shut to mimic everyone else, gave up and squirmed restlessly.

"Perhaps we've meditated long enough," Mara admitted as the younger students followed suit but remained seated and quiet. They were children, after all. You could only expect them to be still for so long, even if they  _ were  _ learning the ways of the Force. 

"Can  _ we  _ play boloball?" one of them—a particularly precocious girl who sometimes reminded Luke a little unsettlingly of Ben Organa-Solo in her eagerness—asked. Luke glanced at Mara, who gave him the slightest smile.

"I  _ suppose _ ," he answered, "Until Master Rey gets back!" But the students were already up and running, and Sammy clambered from his lap and pulled himself up to his feet using Luke's shoulder. 

Sam immediately began crying, seeing the other children running away without him. 

“Oh, now, what’s wrong, Young Sam?” Luke asked. 

Somehow, through crocodile tears, he learned that Sam’s best prosthetic arm for playing boloball, which he had designed with his mother and papa, had been left at home, and he needed it desperately. 

“Oh, goodness, that’s unfortunate!” Luke sympathized. “Maybe we’ll just have to make do with what we have, right?” 

He was too small to even play properly, though Poe at least had designs to get him signed up for a youth boloball team the moment he was old enough. 

Mara, however, was a welcome distraction, and he stopped crying once he was in his grandmother’s arms. 

“Well, it  _ is  _ almost supper time, Master Skywalker,” one of the older students said. “I promised my wife I’d have dinner ready when she got home.” 

“Yes, I suppose it might as well be time to call it quits for today,” Luke agreed, patting his stomach. “We’ll be here tomorrow, again, everyone! Same time. I’ll have sandwiches!” 

Mara jogged him while she bounced Sam. “You can’t keep forcing Wedge to make sandwiches for everyone, Luke. You’re not  _ that  _ cute, anymore.” 

“Hey!” 

“Okay, what did I miss—hey, where did everyone go?” Rey asked upon her return. “Who made my kid cry?” 

"It was almost time for supper, so we let them go. Some of them have families to help with, and the children were done being patient," Mara said, and bent to set Sam down, since he had now decided he no longer wanted to be held.

He toddled immediately over toward the boloball game.

"They'll be back tomorrow," Mara added, "Luke promised them sandwiches."

"Wedge is eventually going to get tired of making so many sandwiches," Rey told her old teacher, who traded a look with Mara and laughed. 

"Can either of  _ you _ make good sandwiches?" he asked.

"Maybe Archex can. I've never asked…" Mara answered thoughtfully, but Rey just shook her head. It was...interesting how the love quadrangle had worked itself out among them, because Luke and Mara had not quite gone back to what they were nor lost what each of them had with Wedge and Archex, respectively. Poe kept speculating that they were all four of them going to move in together. Rey just wanted them happy, and tried not to think about who slept with whom. She supposed it wasn't her business. 

"Well, Poe can, and he should be home tonight," Rey said, ignoring another kick to her bladder as she walked with one hand on her back and holding Sam's hand with the other. "And Finn can, but I think Kes is going to keep him busier than he thinks."

"That's right, he's already been recruited to help train the new group of workers Kes is taking on, hasn't he?" Luke asked. Several people had tried to convince Kes Dameron that maybe letting the Republic send him more of the ex-stormtroopers who needed a little extra help wasn't a good idea, since one had tried to kill him. Kes had been somewhat less than concerned, and had told them so in no uncertain terms. 

Luke was secretly unsure, himself, but if anyone could help ex-stormtroopers, it would be Kes and Finn, and they both  _ wanted _ to help. It seemed silly to refuse them, and the program was now being implemented all over the galaxy: stormtroopers whose labor would be subsidized by the Republican government for two years in exchange for training the ex-soldiers in various trades. 

Rey shrugged. “That’s his problem, not mine. Tonight, we celebrate! You sure you won’t come?” 

“Thank you, no,” Luke said. “We have plans.”

“Mostly making sure Archex and Wedge don’t kill each other,” Mara added. 

“And that’s even more spicy than your cooking!” 

“Suit yourself,” Rey said with a giggle. She was glad she was going to have both her partners back home with her where they belonged tonight. And hopefully Poe would be home early enough to help her cook—before Finn got home. 


	2. Chapter 2

After his meeting with Leia, Finn went to say his official goodbyes to his soldiers, only to find an impromptu farewell party initiating, complete with cake. They gave him a jacket with Resistance and STRF patches and more signatures than he could count on it, which made him briefly regret his decision; he was going to _ miss _ them. 

By the time he arrived home, he felt like a muddled mess of emotions, from deep relief that he didn't have to be a soldier anymore, to sadness that he wouldn't lead his gregarious, rambunctious group of soldiers again. He would see them from time to time, of course, but as a civilian, so it would never be quite the same.

He only recognized the delicious smells coming from the house once he was inside and removing his boots. Sam, having heard him come in, toddled carefully over to him. 

"Pick up!" he demanded. When Finn raised his eyebrows at him, added a very sincere, "Pick up _ please _." 

Finn laughed and scooped his son up off the floor to say hello on the way to the kitchen.

“That’s a good boy, you know you’re going to have to be a good example for your baby sisters!” Poe called from the kitchen, to Finn’s great surprise. 

“Poe! I thought you weren’t going to be home until—” 

“I wasn’t gonna miss my man’s last day to order me around,” Poe said as he leaned in for a kiss. He was wearing an apron and standing over the stove while Rey and Kes sat at the table, drinking tea and wine, respectively. “Even though I technically still outranked you by the end…” 

“_ More pips, more paperwork _, I always said,” Kes laughed, standing up to welcome Finn with a hug. “I think you made the right choice.”

Finn let Poe's kiss and Kes' hug remind him why he'd made his decision—the warmth of family, the chance to spend time with his children and with Kes, without having to worry about being called to fight. He was beginning to think that the galaxy seemed better off the less the Skywalkers got involved in it. 

"I know I did," he agreed, "But I'll also miss them," he added with a small sigh as he set Sam down on another of the table's chairs. 

Rey stood to hug him, smiling, and he stole a quick kiss.

"Of course you will. But you've left them in good hands, and if anything goes wrong, we'll hear Torch screeching from here," she reassured him, and he laughed. That was probably only slightly inaccurate, given that Torch could easily contact him. Not that he thought he _ would _...unless he and Reist managed to set something on fire and they needed him to cover for them. It had happened before…

He shook his head fondly and went to stand near where Poe was cooking.

"What are you making?" he asked, and then sniffed it and added, a little suspiciously, "You're not making it too spicy, are you?"

“For you, _ mi amor _ ? Always,” Poe said. “But since this celebration is for you, it’s only a _ little _too-spicy. And I made your favorite cake for dessert.”

“I thought every cake was his favorite,” Rey whispered to herself, fearing she forgot something. 

“Well, one of your favorites. Okay, it’s all ready! Come here, give me the kid, make yourself a plate,” Poe offered. 

“And your wife! You can make me a plate, too!” Rey said from where she sat at the table. “It’s hard work eating for three.”

Finn handed Sam off to Poe and made up two plates—one with the normal amount of food, and one with extra, which he set down in front of Rey. Sam, too, got his own plate, and proceeded to smush the food around on it once he was settled in his high chair.

"Didn't you say it was only a _ little _ too-spicy?" Finn asked after the first bite made his tongue burn. Rey wordlessly passed him a glass of milk that he had assumed had been for Sam, and he laughed. "It _ is _ delicious, though," he added.

"At least the boy can handle his Papa's cooking," Poe complained, and offered Finn some more cheese. “You are also an adult who is celebrating a special day and can skip straight to dessert, as long as the kid doesn’t see you.” 

"Speaking of kids,” Ray said, pulling up a datapad. 

Her husbands groaned together. 

Without a word, Kes got up and left the room with his dinner. 

“Rey, sweetie, we’ve been over it a hundred times. We can’t honor _ everyone _without giving the kids seventeen names a piece!” Poe, prone to exaggeration, said. 

“I’m not calling them Nugget and Peanut, or Thing 1 and Thing 2,” Rey said. “And we’ve reached the stage where I desperately want the little parasites outside of my body, and we need names before they’re born.” 

“We could name them after their Dad. With numbers.” Poe winked. 

“Ouch,” Finn chuckled, but shook his head, and reached for the datapad where there were several lists of names. Some of them were serious (family names, mostly) and some had clearly been added after Rey had given up keeping either husband from sneaking stupid names onto the list.

"’Baby-8,’ Poe, really?" Finn asked, but Poe pointed over to BB-8, who rocked in amusement. 

[Baby-8 is a good name!] they insisted.

"You were obviously the dad I was referring to when I mentioned numbers, Bee," Poe agreed.

Droid and pilot high-fived as BB-8 warbled and rolled off to find Kes.

"It begs the question what happened to the other seven," Finn called after them, but was met only with a honk of dismissal. He laughed.

"Alright, all joking aside, can we at least narrow this down? Where is this name from, for example?" he asked, pointing to the name "Nabierre," which he assumed Poe had written down when Rey only shrugged. 

"That's Padmé Amidala's birth name, before she assumed a regnal title. Is Padmé still on the list?"

"Yes, but then it would be Skywalkers all the way down," Rey reminded him. She sighed. "I wish Kenobi weren’t a terrible name for a little girl."

"I think it's kinda cute," Poe said.

"Well, there's always Satine, if we want a name from the Kenobi side of the family," Finn suggested, pointing. "Plus, it's pretty. And if we pick a name from Poe's family, each of our children will be named after one of our families."

“That’s good,” Poe said somewhat grudgingly, scrolling through the list. “How about Shmi? We forgot Shmi. That was Anakin Skywalker’s mother, right?”

Rey’s face lit up. “Oh! The miraculous birth, yes! Anakin’s mother.” She tried the name out: “Shmi…”

There was a pause. 

“Okay, so I might just be a simple former stormtrooper who doesn’t know a name from a number,” Finn said. “But ‘Shmi’ is kind of….” 

“Lame?” Poe said. “Not pretty?” 

“Not a good _ name _, I know,” Rey groaned, putting her head in her hands and stuffing her face with dinner instead.

Finn patted Rey's shoulder sympathetically—who would have guessed that naming children would be so difficult? Sam's name had been easy…though maybe Mara Jade had struggled with it when he was born, so, who knew. 

"Okay, well, what about as a middle name? Then it's still there, but we don't have to actually _ use _it all the time," he suggested. 

“Satine Shmi? That’d be...fine,” Poe said, and then sighed loudly. “Shara-Jade Shmi sounds better though, even if it’s a mouthful.”

“She’s going to be the troublemaker, then,” Rey laughed, wincing at her belly, and tempted to punch back. “Ouch. See, _ that’s _her. It’s fine, I wasn’t using my spleen, anyway.” 

"I like Shara-Jade Shmi," Finn agreed. "Though, yes, that's probably just asking for trouble. Then again…" he added, looking between his spouses with a sly grin. Any child of _ theirs _was more than a little likely to inherit a fondness for getting into mischief. 

"Okay, if we like the initial-S pattern, then...Satine? Or—well, Skywalker is nice, too, but it might be too much?" he asked. 

"Kenobi is a cute middle name," Rey suggested. "But he might haunt me if I did that. I mean more than usual."

Poe was tapping out the list of ancestors on his datapad—his side was well-represented, of course, between his father's surname and his mother's given name (Shara Jade was one of the first names the decided on), and the Skywalkers were sufficiently honored. The Kenobi-Kryze situation was less so, but then again theirs was a secret relationship and on some level Rey's existence damaged the legacies of the Jedi and the Mandalorian nobility—legacies which didn't exactly need help in that department. 

"Okay, then. We could make something up? They don't all have to be walking memorials. Maybe we scrap everything and search the holonet for ideas like normal people," Poe said, and then looked at his list again. 

Rey groaned. "Okay, Peanut and Nugget it is. The Sarlacc and The Rancor. The Wokling and The Porglet."

Poe ignored her. "I still think Naberrie is pretty, even if that's too much Skywalkers. I think Leia would be flattered and Luke can deal. Padmé Amidala is only my second favorite historical figure of all time, and we haven't used any of her names. Satine Naberrie? Satine Padmé?" 

"I like Satine Padmé better," Finn said. "But they're both nice, really. We could flip a coin... " he said. 

“Give her two middle names, the other one has two,” Rey said, testily. “Satine Padmé Naberrie Dameron. There, done.” 

“‘Shara Jade’ is her _ first _name,” Poe corrected, not quite picking up that Rey was Done With This Conversation. “Maybe we should hyphenate it...” 

“Uuuuuugh!” Rey said. “Flip a coin! The Force will decide!” 

“That’s not how the Force works,” Poe pointed out. 

"Yes, great, we'll flip a coin—or not, whichever—later," Finn said, jumping in to find a better subject before they all got cranky. “How was the flight back, Poe?” 

“I just want to say—” Poe tried, but Finn forged ahead: 

"Did you both know about the party they were planning today? I went to say goodbye to Torch and the others today and there was _ cake _. And they all signed a jacket and gave it to me—and then Torch tried to make me cry by saying nice things. I almost changed my mind, no matter what Kes says about having made the best decision!" he admitted.

Rey smiled, relieved, and went back to eating and rubbing her belly.

“...Yeah, I’m sorry I couldn’t make it to that, today, buddy,” Poe grinned, successfully re-railed. “I’d’ve liked to see you cry in front of everyone.” 

Poe got up to help Sam manage his food a little better and tidy him up. Chicken pecked around at the dropped food under Sam’s high chair, thrilled that the toddler was so generously messy. 

“[Okay, let’s try to eat a few more bites of dinner, and then we’ll have some cake, okay?]” Poe said to Sam in Yavinese, trying to make more of an effort to teach him, though he was mostly pretty lazy about it. 

So far, Sam’s vocabulary was mostly Basic, but he clearly understood Yavinese, as evidenced by him throwing his arms up in joy and translating: “Cake!” 

“Yeah, Daddy’s cake,” Poe said. 

“No, _ my _cake!” Sam protested. 

“I mean, with the whole clone thing, you’re not exactly wrong, son...” Poe laughed.

"We could say it's _ everyone's _ cake," Finn offered, but now Sam had decided stubbornness would win the day. 

"_ My _ cake!" he repeated, and Finn sighed. Sam was so rarely like this that when he was, Finn wasn't entirely sure whether to cave or not. 

"You have to share," he told his son. Sam considered carefully for a moment. 

"Okay!" he agreed, and Finn laughed—like him, Sam was _ also _ something of a pushover.

"[Finish dinner first,]" Finn said, trying out his own Yavinese, albeit with a terrible accent, and clumsily. 

Poe loved Sam’s sly little scrunched up face, and he loved Finn’s Yavinese so much he kissed them both as he got up to clear dishes. 

“Congratulations on quitting, Finno,” Poe said as he returned serving cake. “I’m proud of you for getting out, buddy. Living the life you want to live.” 

“_ I’m _ glad because I can barely put shoes on without help,” Rey said, grinning, “And this means you’ll be home to help me.”

"How did you know that was what I always wanted to do?" Finn asked, pretending to be amazed. Rey stuck her tongue out at him. 

"Hey, now, you'll teach Sam bad habits," Finn told her. But Sam, having received his cake, was thoroughly occupied in eating it, and in the process getting it all over himself, the table, and the floor. Finn watched him fondly. 

"I'm excited to do...not soldier things. Farm chores. Watching Sam. Learning Yavinese," he said. 

“You know it just fine,” Poe pointed out, standing up so he could get his arms around Rey and Finn. “We’re all doing just fine.” 

That was, until they got to have the nightly fight over who got to get Sam ready for bed. He was a sweet kid, so it was literally a fight over him, especially when the alternative chore was doing dishes. Poe won out with a dramatic guilt trip about being gone for a week ferrying diplomats across the galaxy and not getting to see his son grow up, but only just, and Rey dealt with the dishes while Finn made sure Madine and Chicken had food and water and that the barn was locked up. 

As he headed back inside, he glanced at his datapad, out of habit, to find it completely empty of meetings, trainings, briefings, debriefings, collaborations, demonstrations, screenings, and anything that required the use of a blaster, and nearly burst into tears.


	3. Chapter 3

Poe wouldn’t call himself diplomatic, strictly, but he did have an uncanny ability to adapt himself to any situation at hand with frightening rapidity, despite being nearly—well, never mind how old. 

In this case, he went from reading his son a bedtime story and kissing him goodnight to on his knees and sucking Finn’s cock in under five minutes. He hadn’t even gotten undressed. But seeing Finn and Rey making out in their bed when he’d come in flipped a switch inside him, and he’d just...gone for it. 

“My turn,” Rey demanded, tugging on Poe’s shirt. Speaking of flipped switches, Rey had gone from her interest in sex being to watch Finn and Poe have it and occassionally dominate them, to suddenly wanting to have sex with them both every day. “Ew, Poe, you still have cake in your collar.” 

“Sorry,” Poe laughed, pulling off Finn just as Finn was about to come, making him groan in frustration. He smirked at Finn as he tugged his shirt off. “Welcome home, buddy.”

"Nooo, why do you hate me?" Finn grunted, attempting to wrangle Poe back, but Rey tugged Poe’s head between her legs, now. 

“You know you like edging,” Poe said, voice slightly muffled. 

Finn pouted at them, and Rey laughed.

"If you're patient, maybe we'll _ both _ take care of you, later, hm? Now come back and kiss me."

Rey beckoned him closer, and Finn settled beside Rey, laying his hand on her swollen belly. After a brief fight with her giant maternity pillow for dominance, he got close enough to kiss her, and Poe—bless him—reached up to get a hand on his cock again. 

One of the perks of married sex meant that did it for them, rather quickly: Rey came with Poe’s tongue inside her and Finn came just from rocking into Poe’s fist while kissing Rey. 

Poe laughed as he sat up. “You kids are too easy.”

"What, like you're not?" Finn asked, and Rey laughed at how nearly indignant he sounded about it.

"Yeah, I think we’ve gotten you to come just by tying you up and being a little rough," she said. 

"Which time?" Finn added, "I think there were several."

“Not enough,” Poe said wistfully, kissing them both, and though he was a little hard, he was definitely too tired to be up for anything more tonight. He finished getting everyone undressed and he and Finn slid into their spots on either side of Rey. 

Rey wrapped her arms around them as long as she could sleep on her back, though eventually she rolled over and replaced Poe with her ergonomically-designed pregnancy pillow. 

“I’m gonna sleep on the couch,” Poe threatened, but as always, he never actually left, but fell right back asleep. 

…

Rey dreamed of bloody snow and children crying. The hum of Kylo Ren’s lightsaber made her skin crawl, and she heard her own voice screaming. 

“NO!” Finn shouted in her dream, and Rey snapped awake:

“Finn?!” 

But Poe was the one who leaned over her now, face dropping out of the smile he was wearing. He frowned at her as she blinked up at him. “Nightmare, again?”

Old habits died _ hard _, and meanwhile Finn awoke with a start and was halfway to jumping out of bed before he realized he didn't need to be. It was only Rey, even if the tone of her voice had alarmed him. He blinked himself fully awake.

"Rey?" he asked, and looked over at both Rey and Poe. "Did you say nightmares?" 

“Hey, easy. Geez, you two,” Poe said, putting a hand on Finn’s chest and grinning at them, trying to tease, though it didn't reach his eyes. “We’re all okay here.”

But Poe could feel how both their hearts were hammering. 

“But I dreamed—”

“Hey,” Poe interrupted. “Don’t even worry about it. Just a dream. You won’t even remember it after I’m done making breakfast.” 

Finn batted at Poe's hand and rolled over to look at Rey.

"The same one?" he asked her, but assumed it had to be. There weren't many other nightmares that would wake Rey up shouting. He sat up and rubbed his eyes, awake now.

“Yeah—”

“Ah ah ah,” Poe said again. “No nightmare talk if you want me to make Twi’lek Toast. You just give them power over you if you think about them too much.”

Rey shut her mouth and then rubbed her eyes. “I guess I have to pee, anyway.” 

“TWEEWEK TOOOOOOOST!” Sam cried, as he barrelled into the room, momentum carrying him forward until he slammed into the bed. Poe barely caught him as he fell back, giggling. 

“Whoa, there, kiddo,” Poe laughed, hauling him up onto the bed by the back of his pajamas. 

It was impossible not to smile when Sam was giggling and trying to smother all of them at once. He was sleep warm and smelled so good, even though he probably had a full diaper. 

“Mama! Mama, sistos today?” Sam asked, patting her belly and pushing her shirt away to press his ear to her stomach.

Rey laughed and ruffled Sam's hair.

"No, not today. We have to wait a little while longer," she told him, but Sam had a look of great concentration on his face. Rey smiled, and one of the twins, probably the same one who liked to play boloball with her bladder, kicked.

Sam jumped and then giggled and patted where the tiny foot had kicked.

"Sisto!" he announced, then cupped his hands around his mouth and put his face close to Rey's stomach. "Love you!" he called to his sisters.

Finn about died of how incredibly sweet that was, and exchanged similarly adoring smiles with Rey and Poe.

"Okay, okay, let Mama up. Want to help Papa with toast?" Finn asked.

“Yep!” Sam reported. 

Poe lifted Sam and tossed him into the air. Sam giggled. 

“Hey, Sammy, you gonna lend me a hand in the kitchen?” Poe asked. 

Still giggling, Sam removed his mechno arm and handed it to Poe: “Here, Papa!” 

“Oh, you little kidder!” Poe replied, tickling Sam. “Look at this kidder. Gets it from me. Come on, we need both hands for kitchen duty, cadet!” 

Together, Poe and Sam made their way downstairs and started banging pots and pans and shouting at each other in their own Papa-Son language, half Basic, part Yavinese, and inflected with Binary when BB-8 got in on it. 

Rey smiled up at Finn. “Shouldn’t you be feeding chickens and horses at this time of day?”

"You know, I was hoping farm life would be more relaxing," Finn complained, and gave Rey a kiss before scooting out of bed and throwing on clothes to go feed the animals. 

When he got outside, Chicken and the other chickens were already squawking at the top of their lungs, and only stopped once he had not only filled their feeders but tossed them some grain to hunt for on the ground.

Baze and Chirrut, bless them, simply greeted him with soft nickering and excited pawing at the ground as he threw them hay and gave them their own buckets of grain.

He paused before heading back up to the house to stand between them, petting their necks and listening to their contented munching sounds. It was a good way to start the day.

To Finn’s surprise, Rey joined him—still in her pajamas, and holding her back as she waddled somewhat slowly out to join him. Her other hand held a steaming mug of caf. 

“I thought the doctor said you shouldn’t have caffeine. It’s bad for the babies.” 

“It’s bad for _ everyone _if I don’t get at least one cup,” Rey replied, smiling at him. “But I’ll share this one with you.” 

Finn reached to take the mug that Rey offered and took a sip. 

"It's good this morning," he said, and took another sip before handing it back to Rey.

"That's because I put too much sugar in it," she teased. Chirrut turned his head toward her and snorted softly, begging for attention. Rey rested her hand on his nose while Finn watched her.

"How bad was it this time?" he asked quietly. 

“No worse than normal,” Rey said, sounding calm, though she clenched the coffee mug tightly. “My blood in the snow. A-an overturned speeder. Lightning. Kylo Ren trying to steal _ my babies— _”

She gasped as the mug of caf in her hand cracked, spilling the hot drink over both of them. 

“Kriff! Sorry!” 

"Whoa, hey," Finn soothed, taking the broken mug from Rey's hand and setting it on the ground. He could feel the anger practically radiating off her, and crackling hot and dangerous through the Force and across the bond between them. He reached over and took her hands between his, but he couldn't find any word of comfort to offer that didn't sound like a promise he feared he couldn't keep. They could try their hardest to stop Kylo Ren, and they might still fail. Rey knew that. They _ all _knew that. But Rey didn't need the reminder. She needed a little bit of belief that they would be alright, and that they would, in the end, defeat Kylo Ren. They weren't fighting alone, after all. If Kylo Ren wanted to fight, there'd be a line of people waiting to get in his way.

"We won't let him. If he tries to steal our babies, we'll stop him," he said.

Rey took a careful breath. Finn believed that, and Finn was going to make it happen, and his presence soothed and steadied her. He managed to do all that without being angry. Not even _ righteously angry _, as he had every right to be. She threw her arms around him and buried her face in his neck, as best she could with a huge belly between them. “Oh, Finn.” 

How could such a wonderful person come from the same bloodline as Kylo Ren? As Darth Vader? 

...Then again, if he was Luke Skywalker’s son, maybe he had the genetic material to look into the face of evil and show it love. Or maybe this was something uniquely Finn. She sniffed, kissing his neck. “You better be right.” 

"Of course I'm right. I'm _ always _ right...right?" Finn said, half-jokingly, and even though Rey snorted obviously, he gave Rey's shoulders a squeeze, and he didn't let go until she did.

"And we have help, too, don't forget that," he added. Both of them had grown up learning they could rely on no one, and though Finn worried he about promising Rey things he couldn't guarantee,_ this _ he felt confident in. They weren't alone. They would never _ be _alone, no matter what they were facing.

And that was important, especially when having it still sometimes felt like a novelty. 

Rey took a deep breath, comforted by that, too. It was so ingrained in her, especially, to think she had to handle all her problems herself, and she had to remind herself, daily, that she had two capable husbands, a doting droid, friends, parents of a kind, loved ones, _ Jedi _, even, who would die for her, as she would for them. 

In her nightmare, she was always alone. Alone against Kylo Ren, and that was what frightened her. But Finn was right. 

“You’re right,” she said, relaxing a little, letting the tension flow out of her. “You _ are _right. And you’re pretty right most other times, too.”

Finn left his hands resting on Rey's shoulders until he felt her shoulders relax, and then let them drop back to his sides and gave her a small smile.

"We've got this. You ready to go back up to the house? Otherwise Poe will get suspicious and feed all our pancakes to Sam and Madine," he said to her. 

“He better not! I’m eating for three!” Rey said, letting food be a distraction as she took Finn’s arm and let him lead her to the house. 

When they got back to the house, Sam was sitting on the floor banging on two different pots with a wooden spoon and singing a song that appeared to have neither words nor any discernible tune, but which seemed very entertaining, as he kept stopping to giggle at himself. 

Poe was paying him no mind, holding a spatula in one hand and his datapad in the other, frowning. 

“Poe…” Finn began to admonish, saving Sam from putting something from the floor in his mouth. 

Poe looked up, frown fading and eyes sparkling. “Hey, you’re back!”

He flipped the pancakes deftly: they were a little over-brown, but edible still. “Sorry, sorry. Haven’t had enough caf yet.” 

He refilled his mug and poured two mugs for Finn and Rey, not asking where the other mug was.

"What's on the datapad?" Finn asked, having missed neither the frown nor the slightly browner-than-usual pancakes. He set enough plates next to the stove for all of them and paused to put an arm around Poe's waist and kiss his cheek.

Poe smiled gamely, though Finn did not miss the briefest flick of his eyes to Rey. "Ask me again sometime. Oh, wait, don't. You don't have any security clearance anymore with the Republic. It’s _ classified _."

“Class-fied!” Sam echoed, throwing his arms up. 

Poe stuck his tongue out at Finn, and then winked, and turned back to his pancakes. "Not your problem, anymore, buddy."

"I…actually hadn't considered that," Finn stated, frowning, but he'd probably ask Poe again later anyway, especially if it involved Rey. "_ Now _how am I supposed to keep you two out of trouble?" he asked.

“It’s not like you follow the rules, anyway,” Rey pointed out, easing herself into a chair. “Uugh, my back is killing me. I’m supposed to train with Luke and Mara and the younglings today and I _ desperately _do not want to.” 

“Gampa Luke? Gamma Mawa?” Sam asked eagerly, getting up from the floor and patting Rey’s knee. “We go?”

Rey cupped her son’s cheek. “We’ll see, sweetheart. Mama’s tired carrying your sisters around all day.” 

“It’s only morning,” Sam pointed out, almost accusingly. “Not all day yet.” 

Poe winced, and snorted. ”_ Ouch _.” 

"I have a crazy idea," Finn suggested. "What if...you took the day off and they trained without you?" Finn asked. Of course, now that he technically could, he'd probably get roped into training, too, when there weren't things to do around the farm with Kes or the incoming ex-stormtroopers. 

“Take a day off? That _ is _a crazy idea,” Poe said, joining them at the table with a pile of pancakes. 

Sam whined until Finn put him in his highchair and Poe plated him up some cut-up pancakes, which he tucked into with relish. 

“I can drop Sam off with Mara and Archex on my way to the base, today,” Poe offered. “If you two just want to hang around here.”

Rey sighed. “No, it’s fine. If the babies were coming out any day now I’d think about it. But I can’t spend a whole month at home—” 

“I mean, you _ can _,” Poe suggested. “People do.” 

“Well, I don’t want to. And training does make me feel better, and I think it’s good for Sam.”

Poe sipped his coffee, grinning. “And Finn can have a nice leisurely gentleman farmer’s day at home.” 

“You mean an all-day work day behind the harvester,” Kes said, entering the kitchen and washing his hands. “Some of the koyos need some pruning, and we might get some early fruits. ‘Bout time we got you learning the ropes.” 

"It's just trimming branches, right? How hard could it be?" Finn asked, and nudged out a chair for Kes to sit down and join them.

Kes laughed, patting Finn’s shoulder. “Oh, boy. This is gonna be fun.” 

“Last time I said that I crashed into the Force Tree, but clearly Dad and the Force forgave me,” Poe said, finishing up his breakfast and taking his plate to the sink. “Okay, I gotta head in. Am I dropping anyone off anywhere?” 

“No, I’m going in to train,” Rey said with a loud sigh. “And I’ll take Sam with me.”

"How did you _ eat _ that fast?" Finn asked in amazement, only halfway through his pancakes. “How did you beat me?”

“Just excited to get to work, I guess,” Poe said. 

"Enjoy your paperwork," Finn added, teasing, which earned him a kiss with teeth instead of the sweet kiss Poe offered Rey.

“_ Ouch _. I’ll get you back for that,” Poe said, kissing Rey and then Sam. “You be good for your mama, okay?” 

“Otay!”

“And you,” Poe told his father, “go easy on my husband.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for inconsistent updates. Just trying to finish a PhD program over here...


	4. Chapter 4

Once they finished breakfast, Rey left with Sam and Finn joined Kes at the harvester, out near the koyo orchards.

“So...I’m _ not _gonna go easy on you, mijo,” Kes began with a chuckle. "We'll pick the ripe fruits first, and prune back the branches they're on so they can grow next year."

Finn eyed the koyo trees, but didn't see any obviously ripe fruit, and glanced back at Kes.

"How do you know there's anything ripe on the trees?"

"You _ look _!" Kes laughed, gesturing for Finn to follow. "At least you know what a ripe koyo looks like. You pick them like this," Kes said, climbing up a ladder and pulling on a fruit near the end of the branch. He gave it a twist and tossed it down to Finn. "And then you cut the tip of the branch off," he said, and demonstrated.

"Seems easy enough," Finn said dubiously, and Kes hopped off the ladder to join him.

"It is, until you've been up and down that ladder about fifty times," Kes said, and at Finn's dawning look of concern, laughed and clapped him on the shoulder.

"But this is a small orchard, and we won't have that many to pick today," Kes added, when Finn looked worried.

It still took them most of the rest of the morning to finish in the orchard, especially once Kes remembered that some of the trees needed pruning. By the time they were done, Finn felt like he really had been up and down the ladder at least a hundred times, and he was more than happy to take a break for lunch.

"This afternoon, we'll get the harvester down to the field and try to harvest some of the grass for the nerfs," Kes said cheerily.

…

“There’s _ more _?” Poe asked, as Connix marched in with another datapad. “I was just about to go to lunch.”

“You’re going to want to work through lunch on this one, Poe.” 

Since Poe didn’t stand on ceremony, he didn’t require it of others, especially when no one was watching. But still, Connix was military regular, and they were hardly on first names, anyway. 

So he looked more closely at this new list of incoming prisoners to process, these from a star destroyer captured looping around Hoth. There was nothing particularly remarkable about this set—a list of those who surrendered and requested clemency from the Republic to be processed by the SRTF, a list of those who were loyal to the First Order who would be processed and sent to a Republic prison, and a list of killed and injured. 

Connix waited, and sure enough, Poe stood up, his eyes blazing. 

“_ We’ve captured Agent Terex _?!” 

“Supreme Leader, he’s calling himself, now. Or was,” Connix told him. 

Poe sat again, the air knocked out of him. He wasn’t too proud to admit that his first thoughts were of vengeance, of hurting him like Terex hurt Finn, and him, and the galaxy. 

His next thoughts were concerned: Terex would not let himself be captured unless he had a plan to get a lot of people killed. 

But then, Poe dared to hope. If they captured the Supreme Leader, then they had the last piece of the First Order in their custody. Terex was smart, he would make a deal—which would mean leniency, which Poe wasn’t keen on, but...but it could end the First Order once and for all. 

“Poe?” 

“Okay. Okay,” Poe said, gripping the arm of his chair as he read the name over, and over again. “Okay, he’s on maximum lockdown, I presume?” 

“Yes, sir.” 

“Right. Double that.”

“Double maximum?” Connix asks, bemused. 

“You heard me. Program a droideka with his name on it if you have to.”

“_ Still _ against the Jakkuvian Convention.” 

“And I’m going to need to interview him.” Poe rubbed his forehead, missing having Finn and Rey here. “But first I’ll need to schedule a meeting with General Organa.” 

“You have your _ own _aide for that…” 

Poe was on his feet again. “You’re right, I’m sorry. Never mind. I’m just gonna go see her now.” 

…

"No, not like that. We have a process for a reason."

Finn frowned, but he waited for Kes to explain what, precisely, they were doing. Apparently it wasn't as simple as "harvesting."

"We want to feed the seeds to the nerfs and chickens, but the leaves go to the horses. This machine can't do that very fast, mostly because it's old," his father-in-law explained, and Finn chuckled. "So you can't just drive it like a speeder or something, or you'll make a mess of it."

He climbed up in the rickety-looking old combine and waved Finn up with him.

“No wonder Poe hated this work,” Finn suggested. “Driving slow?”

"These are the controls, that's the speedometer, and these lights will start going if anything goes wrong. It's easy, but you have to be patient, and you have to pay attention," Kes told him solemnly. Finn nodded in agreement, and Kes clapped him on the shoulder before stepping around him to hop to the ground.

"Go ahead, then, have a seat!" he encouraged, and Finn settled in the seat, making himself comfortable in the care-worn seat and looking out and down through the dusty window.

"You want _ me _to drive?" he asked, "Just like that? I basically failed piloting in officer training..."

"Honestly, mijo, you could run her into the barn and it wouldn't be the worst thing to ever happen to her…" Kes laughed, and waved him on.

…

“Seriously?” Poe demanded. “I’m not letting that happen.” 

Leia sighs, staring up at him. 

“Sit down, Poe. You’re getting too old for theatrics like this.” 

“I can sit, but I’m still not letting it happen,” Poe said. “Finn’s retired. Consulting for the Stormtrooper Recovery Task Force is one thing, but I’m not putting him in the same room with Terex after he _ tortured _Finn.” 

Leia got a serious look in her eye that might almost have been a glare, if Poe were younger, not an Admiral, and they both weren’t running on stress and fumes. “He says he’ll cooperate, and give us everything we want, including the last known location of Kylo Ren." 

She didn't even flinch when she said the name, to her credit.

"But he wants to tell it to the son of Luke Skywalker.” 

Poe was silent for a moment. All Finn wanted was to _ escape _all this. 

Finally he sighed. 

"I thought _ him and I _had a thing,” he said, with an almost-chuckle. “But fine, as long as I can go with him. I'll make the call."

…

Finn's comlink couldn't be heard over the roaring engines of the turbocombine until he turned it off, on Poe's third call.

"Wait, slow down. You what? He let himself get caught?" Finn asked, his voice rising in pitch if not in volume.

"Yeah, Finn. He gave himself up, apparently. Or came quietly once he was caught. Not sure which is better."

Terex wanted to talk to him. Him, specifically, newly-no-rank Finn. Terex was everything Finn had wanted to leave behind when he left the military. He didn't want to be on the same _ planet _ as Terex, not to mention in the same room, but this was too big to pass up for something as unimportant as personal feelings.

They could win this, if his information was good. They could win this, and Rey could stop having nightmares, and the twins could be born into a world where war wasn't raging through the stars. They could save _ countless _ lives. Saying ‘He freaks me out and I want nothing to do with him’ just sounded selfish now; it wasn't really an option, except followed by ‘But I'll do it anyway,’ which was what he told Poe after the initial shock had worn off.

"When do you need me?" he added, because they still had harvesting work to do, and he hated to leave his new life early because his old one wouldn't let him go.

"I don't even want to ask you to do this," Poe said, sounding pained. "I'm going to talk to him first, see if he's serious. If he's got anything good. I just wanted to prepare you. I'm sorry, buddy."

"Not your fault," Finn responded, doing his best to sound like this was no big deal—just a hiccup of the kind he was long used to. "Hey, when you talk to him, try not to let him get under your skin. You know he'll try, right? And he's not worth it," he added with a long sigh. 

“I know, I _ know _,” Poe said.

"Does Rey know?" Finn asked softly, then, as if she'd somehow use the Force to overhear what they were talking about.

Poe actually laughed aloud. “Oh, hell, no! You think knowing he’s on the same planet is gonna help her current anger issues?” 

Then he paused, nervous. “She’s not like...there and listening in, is she? Because if she is, I should just leave the planet for—you know, until the babies are—”

“_ No _, Poe,” Finn sighed. "She and Sam are still at training, I think. And your dad ran up to the house to get lemonade, so he's not eavesdropping either," he added. It probably wasn't worth worrying Kes any more than it was worth upsetting Rey. The fewer people who knew about Terex, the better, as far as he was concerned. 

Poe breathed out. "Okay, good. I'll see what I can get done with him today, maybe we plan on you coming on Base tomorrow. I'll get an SRTF consultation on your schedule if my dad or Rey ask. Okay?"

Finn nodded, then remembered Poe couldn't hear him nod.

"Yeah. Good idea," he said, but he was already trying to think through how this was likely to go. He barely registered Poe's response.

"Great. Love you. Bye."

"Love you too," he responded, and the comlink went silent. Finn stuffed it back in his pocket and sighed deeply. He didn't know when Kes would be back, so he took some deep breaths and did his best to school his demeanor into something that suggested nothing was wrong.

"Okay, I have lemona—what's wrong? Did you crash the harvester?" Kes asked when he returned and got a good look at Finn, and Finn cursed his entire face.

"No, it's fine. There's some problem up at the base. Just…you know, SRTF stuff. They need me to come by tomorrow for just a little while," Finn responded, "But I think we can at least finish this field today, right?" he asked, nodding at the field as he took his lemonade.

Kes gave him a long, thoughtful look that said he was pretty sure Finn was lying, but he hadn't made up his mind what about, just yet. Then he glanced to the field and patted Finn's shoulder.

"Of course! That is, as long as you stop trying to do this perfectly!" he said, smiling. "We're going for 'good enough to not be a waste of time', rather than 'perfectly manicured lawn' remember?" he said. 

Finn looked around, and Kes laughed proudly. "It _ does _look nice. Maybe we should enter one of those manicured garden competitions."

"Now you're just making fun of me," Finn said.

"Absolutely, son."

…

Poe strode into Interview Room 2, where Terex sat quite calmly, in binders attached to the table, with two Republic guards keeping an eye on him. Poe didn't bother to dismiss them, just sat across from the prisoner and opened a file.

"Well, they said you came quietly enough, Terex," Poe said. 

"I didn't see the point in resistance.”

"Cute." Poe smiled tightly at him. “You know. I didn’t miss you at all.” 

“Good to see you, too, Admiral."

"I'm only glad to see you in binders, Terex."

"Oh _ my_, Admiral. We have an audience."

"Come on, really? Exhibitionism is where you draw the line? Not..." Poe looked at his file. “Kidnapping infants to indoctrinate into your extremist cult?” 

"One has to have standards. At any rate, I believe I said I would only be willing to make a deal with the son of Luke Skywalker. I feel...that we former stormtroopers see eye to eye more easily, despite our own much longer affair, Dameron."

Poe didn't let himself appear riled, but he snarled, "You and Finn don't see eye to eye on anything. And you never gave a kriff about Skywalker. Why do you _ really _want to talk to Finn?"

“Now, Admiral, you distrust my motives?” Terex asked, but he was smiling like he was pleased to be asked what he really felt. “Does it matter why—”

Poe slammed the table with his open palm, shutting Terex up. “Yes! He’s _retired_, Terex! You let me know why I should even bother dealing with the _paperwork_, much less everything else, to let you see my husband after what you did to him? You’re half cyborg, now. I give the word and we just download what we need from you.”

Terex leaned back, unaffected. “First of all, I’m afraid that won’t work. Of course the First Order installed anti-slicing measures in me that will kill me instantly and destroy my cybernetic enhancements, rendering all my knowledge useless to you, should you attempt to wrest it from me by force.”

Poe stared at him, forcing himself to breathe evenly. In some sense, he was enjoying this: it was as close to being back in the field as he could hope for these days, gave him something of a rush. 

“Why, then?” he asked softly, like he was giving a little, when he wasn’t planning on giving anything.

Terex smiled. 

“I just can’t believe he’ll stay retired.” 

That did surprise Poe, but he did his best to keep a rein on it. His face twitched, but he didn’t stand up or flip the table, so he thought he was doing pretty good. 

“Kriff you,” Poe said, and stood up. “Give me something to verify you _ actually _have anything worth downloading, or we’re done talking. Period.”

His bravado read as seriousness, apparently, something Terex respected. “Trace the account numbers going into and out of the Neimodian Galactic Bank account number 3216668-3936303. You’ll find a number of your supposed allies have been and are still funding the First Order. Should help you clean house in that new Galactic Senate of yours. Speaking of, I heard you were thinking about running?” 

Poe actually laughed. 

“_Now _ I’m worried about your intel, Terex. Or your head.” He stood up. “Okay, we’ll check that out. If it’s any good, you’ll get your visit with Finn tomorrow.” He called over his shoulder, “Take him back to his cell.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, gang! SO sorry for the delayed post. MayGlenn is in final dissertation edits, so please stick with us through the hiatus. We promise we're not stopping, just slowing down!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> May the 4th be with you! Told ya we weren't done! ;)

The best part about being a farmer, Finn realized within the first several days, was setting his own hours and his own schedule. So the next day, when he stole out of bed to start work before dawn, he was done working by midday, enough that he could join Rey and Luke for some practice lifting rocks,  _ and _ could take Sam home for his nap. By the time they got home, Sam was plenty ready for a nap, but still insisted on a story. He fell asleep halfway through it, warm and heavy in Finn’s lap, which left Finn with no option but to stay put and try not to wake his son.

There was still the matter of his afternoon appointment, the interview with Terex masquerading as an STRF consultation in all the calendars, but Finn simply couldn’t stand up and pace and worry about it, not with Sam asleep in his lap. Instead, he rocked in the old chair and cat-napped until Sam awoke and patted his arm.

“Daddy, daddy, daddy,” he said in a soft sing-song voice, until Finn snapped awake and smiled at him.

“Hey, bud. Nice nap?” Finn asked, and Sam nodded.

“Nice nap!” Sam agreed. “Snack time!” he added, and Finn laughed. Sam was nothing if not consistent,  _ especially _ in the middle of a growth spurt.

Kes was back for the afternoon and readily agreed to babysit until Rey came home from training. 

Reluctantly, at that point, Finn headed to the base to meet up with Poe.

Sevens met him, a little grim-faced, at the gate, ready to check him in with a visitor’s badge and a smile that didn’t quite reach their eyes. “It’s good to see you back, sir. Sorry it’s not under better circumstances.” 

Finn shrugged, taking the vaguely humiliating visitor’s badge and clipping it to his collar right where he had always put his actual clearance badge. It felt simultaneously familiar and incorrect, and it made him uncomfortable.

“You  _ do  _ know you don’t have to call me ‘sir’ anymore, right?” he asked Sevens, who gave him at least a slightly more earnest smile.

“With all due respect: as if,  _ sir _ ,” they answered, and for a couple of minutes, as they made their way to the heavily guarded holding cells, they pretended Finn really  _ was _ here for a low-stakes STRF meeting. 

“Be careful with Terex, sir,” Sevens said to Finn, when they were alone in a turbolift. “He’s probably still a little…” 

Sevens made a twitchy hand motion near their head, to indicate something was wrong with Terex’s head, as the door opened. “Just be careful, sir.” 

“He’s not going to do anything but be nasty,” Poe said firmly, waiting in full uniform and official parade rest in front of the doors, like military decorum would be armor on this occassion. “Nothing to worry about.”

Finn and Poe took a moment to look at each other: Finn in his noncomb farmer’s clothes, bright with patterns and colors; Poe in his uniform. Each appreciated the other with a smile and a nod, and with just a little gratitude, a little bit of  _ better him than me _ . Maybe they were both in the right place. 

Poe grew serious, then, motioning for Finn to follow him, like he didn’t know the way. Sevens fell into step behind them. “Terex doesn’t believe you’ll stay retired. I think he’s just going to try to rile you, maybe into attacking him, or something, in the hopes he might get a reduced sentence or whatever. I know you won’t get baited, or whatever, but. He gave us good intel yesterday, that’ll be on the holonews soon—so whatever he says is probably going to be useful in mopping up the First Order.” 

They stopped at the door, and Poe sighed before going in. “He does seem done with the First Order. He’s not a person I trust, but he only loves the Order as far as it helps him. And it looks like they hung him out to dry, so.”

"He also probably only wants to work with us as far as it helps him," Finn added, and paused to collect his scattering thoughts. "May as well get it over with..."

Poe stopped him with a hand on his arm. “He thinks you won’t  _ stay  _ retired, Finn. Don’t let him get under your skin.” 

Finn nodded and nudged the door open.

Terex looked none the worse for wear. Were it not for the binders around his wrists and attached to the table, he could have been at a cafe, or having a relaxing chat across Poe’s desk. But he did sit up straighter when they came in, and gave Finn a smile that made him want to turn around and leave.

Last time he'd seen that smile, it had been on the other side of glass, and he'd been nearly suffocating after being shocked half to death. And he knew he'd given away his discomfort when Terex's smile widened and he raised his eyebrows.

"Alright, I’m here. What do you want, Terex? I'm not here to play whatever stupid game you have planned. I have crops to harvest and ex-stormtroopers to train," Finn told him.

“How delightful to continue to surround yourself with your old comrades,” Terex drawled. “Once a stormtrooper, always a stormtrooper.”

"Well, you know, not all of us are complete failures at escaping the people we hate, and the world can always use more good people," Finn said.

“Indeed. You look well, Mr. Dameron. How’s the wife?” 

“We’re not here to make smalltalk, Terex,” Poe said, summoning BB-8 to turn on their recorder. “Now you hold up your end of the bargain.”

"I'm told you wanted to speak to me. I'm here. Speak."

“Very military for a man who’s allegedly left that behind,” Terex says, with a gleeful smile. “Very well. Where would you like me to begin?” 

“Well, your bank account numbers checked out, and we’re putting that in the hands of the Senate to censure,” Poe said, remaining standing. “We can start with the locations and strength of all First Order ports. Who’s in charge now, and where will they be?” 

Terex chuckled. “Oh, that’s a fun one! I suppose you don’t know about Kylo Ren?”

"Assume we don't," Finn answered. He was supposed to be dead—that's what Leia and Rey had hoped, certainly, and Finn had been hopeful, too, that that was true. No more Kylo Ren meant one less obstacle in this fight. But if he was still alive…

“Well, he’s still alive. Er, for a certain definition of  _ alive _ ,” Terex said, with a chuckle that meant he definitely enjoyed Kylo Ren’s pain. 

Poe at least couldn’t blame him for that, which must have shown on his face, because Terex turned a grin on him. 

“It’s true, Admiral. You’re back to having the best hair in the galaxy. It seems Lord Ren was badly injured by whatever your wife and his mother did to him...and he really hasn’t taken that well.”

"As in he's building another super weapon, or he's just having one long, continuous meltdown that will take the rest of us with it?" Finn asked. He found he couldn't find much sympathy for Ren, not after everything he'd done and every chance he'd had to be better. Still, Finn didn’t wish him to  _ suffer _ .

“Oh, mostly the meltdowns. Plotting his revenge, you know.  _ I _ was working on a superweapon, as the only one with any gumption in the First Order, but we were still in the planning stages. Strap Death Star technology to Star Destroyers, I thought, and still think, is the way of the future. You’ll want to try Mustafar for those beauties, but if they’ve moved them I couldn’t possibly say where.” He waved his bound hands nonchalantly. “I suspect they’ll put Pryde in charge after me. He’s old school, Empire. You’d like him.”

Poe crossed his arms. “Doubt that.” 

“Well,  _ I _ like him.  _ Predictable _ . But smart. You know the type.” 

Poe took note of that.

"Mustafar? Is  _ that _ where they're building them?" Finn asked. But he supposed that wasn’t surprising. No one would disturb them there. It wasn’t as if people went to Mustafar for fun, or by choice at all. “How many do they have? Are there plans to deploy them in the near future?” 

“A complement of twenty-three...for now,” Terex said. “My plans were to attack Jakku, of course, though its central location does make it a difficult target. Many officers disagreed with me. And Snoke and his lap-dog, of course, are only interested in one thing.”

He smiled at Finn. 

Finn didn’t like that smile. It gave him chills and reminded him of not being able to breathe, and lightning dancing across his skin. He dearly wanted to get up and leave.

“Revenge, obviously. What, exactly, are they planning?” he asked instead.

“Oh, my boy, no,” Terex drawled, fixing Finn with a gleeful stare. “That is, yes, but not entirely. They’re interested in  _ you _ . In all the Skywalker children, really. Snoke’s something of a collector.”

“Well, I’m the only one I know of,” Finn snapped, answering automatically. Except that wasn’t true: his son, of course, was technically also the son of Luke Skywalker. And one of the twins was Luke Skywalker’s grandchild, too, so maybe this growing paranoia of Rey’s wasn’t entirely misplaced—not that they thought it would be a good idea to tell her. They absolutely could  _ not  _ tell Rey that Snoke really  _ did  _ want to steal the twins. And Sam. And...him?

Terex watched the realization play out across Finn’s face. Poe cut between them. “How’s Snoke planning to do that? This planet is a military base, and in case you missed it, Finn repelled your Death Star tech with the Force. And Skywalkers aside, you seriously were planning on fighting  _ Rey _ ?” 

“Well, the plan was to make an appearance at their  _ birth-day _ , as far as I know. Beyond that, I wasn’t privy. Seemed to be some sort of covert operation.” Terex waved a hand. “Don’t you want to hear about the Star Destroyers?”

Finn did not want to hear about the Star Destroyers.

"I'd rather hear every last detail you weaseled your way into getting on this whole ‘collecting Skywalkers’ plan," he told Terex. His face, always too easy to read, had already given away his concern, so there was no point in pretending it didn't worry him. And piss him off. Snoke thought he was going to come after their  _ children _ ? On  _ Yavin _ , where they were on their home turf? The audacity of it was mind-blowing. Only Snoke and his arrogant apprentice could have possibly come up with it in the first place.

They were also, Finn feared, perhaps the only two people with just enough conniving, terrible inventiveness and raw power between them to pull something like that off.

“I really am afraid I don’t know any of it,” Terex said calmly, not sounding sad about it at all. “They need the Skywalkers for some plan of theirs. I believe cloning is involved. Or was involved. You see, the First Order and the Sith are merely  _ working together, _ not the same entity at all. We had separate group chats.”

"What have they been building, other than your Star Destroyers? Do they have cloning facilities?" Finn asked. If they had new cloning facilities, it was news to him. Another thought occurred to him. "Are they ‘recruiting’ new stormtroopers to replace the ones they've lost?" he added, the air-quotes practically audible.

"Well, both cloning and raising child soldiers, while fairly successful methods in the long term and the larger picture, are hardly practical in the short term. You'll be happy to know, of course, that the First Order is at the point of turning to  _ desperate _ measures. I was pushing for traditional recruitment, which, you'll be unhappy to hear, is still pathetically easy in multiple sectors."

"Which sectors are these?" Poe demands. "And you didn't answer him about the cloning facilities. We already know the First Order has Skywalker DNA."

" _ Had _ , unfortunately. Oh, but that's right,  _ you _ had a hand in the loss of those lives, didn't you? Still, really more of a late-term abortion—"

Before Finn could blink, Poe, incensed by Terex’s callousness, had reached across the table and grabbed Terex by the throat—with his mecho-arm, no less—and was already crushing his windpipe. “If I killed you right now, Terex,  _ that  _ would be a late-term abortion, you soulless, spineless, son of a—”

“ _ Dameron _ !” came a shout over the PA system, and Poe was surprised enough by Leia’s voice that he let the guards haul him off of Terex and out of the room. He was even further surprised to learn that Leia and Amilyn Holdo were in the next room, watching them through the one-way transparisteel. 

“Okay, you could have told me you two were there,” Poe said when he arrived, shaking the guards off and nodding to them to let them know he wasn’t going to be any more trouble. He was kind of an old hand at this. “I suppose you want to be listening to that douche in there?” 

“Poe, language,  _ please _ ,” Amilyn told him. “You have  _ got  _ to learn how to not fly off the handle like that.” 

“I’m going back in there,” Poe said, but guards blocked his path, and he wheeled on Leia. “I’m not leaving Finn alone with that guy.” 

“Finn’s fine,” Leia said. “Watch.” 

It was true. Back in the interrogation room, Finn  _ was  _ fine, but only because Poe beat him to trying to throttle Terex. He sat back in his chair and waited until he thought he could speak without repeating Poe’s mistake.

"Do you  _ enjoy _ what little freedom and comfort you currently have? Because you're not really acting like it," he said in a deceptively calm tone of voice, his eyes never leaving Terex's. There was, of course, no response. 

Terex was still wearing that smug, shit-eating smile that said he had them exactly where he wanted them. 

Finn shrugged, pushed back from the table, and got up.

"Your choice, then. Can't say we didn't try," he said, and signaled for the remaining guards to unlock the door so he could leave. "Have fun in prison," he added with a careless wave over his shoulder.

Poe, Leia, and Amilyn watched in amazement as Terex tried to stand, yanked back by his wrists locked to the interview table. 

“N-now, Finn!” he said amicably, but everyone knew that Finn had already won. Terex knew it, too, though he said smoothly: “Of course what I said was entirely inappropriate, especially given your new role as a father. Allow me to apologize. There’s still quite a lot I think you’ll want to hear.” 

Poe, behind the transparisteel, gaped. Terex...apologizing? He asked Leia, “Did Finn just mindtrick him?” 

Leia just shrugged.

"Try being intentionally outrageous and offensive  _ one more time _ , and I'm out," Finn warned the other man, though he was secretly glad that Terex was such an attention-craving asshole. He'd have been difficult to play, otherwise.

"So, you have my attention. Talk. What do we want to know?" Finn asked after he'd taken his seat again.

“I think it would be more beneficial for both of us if you know  _ why  _ I want you to know,” Terex said, and he leaned in, elbows on the table. “The First Order is nothing like the Empire. It has no vision, and its officers would rather eat each other alive to get ahead than work towards the slightest kind of order. Meanwhile the Huxes and their child soldiers and clone armies are coming back to bite us every time there’s a new insurrection. What I want you to know, Finn, is that the Empire your grandfather served, and that I served, is nothing like what the First Order has become. They’re boys, boys with bigger guns than their fathers, yes, but still  _ boys _ !”

This surprised Finn not one bit. After all, he'd grown up around these people and under their command. And they all knew what kind of person Kylo Ren was, and what kind of person Hux had been.

"And that bothered you so much you decided to come tell us how to beat them?" Finn asked, a little skeptical. He'd always been under the impression that Terex just liked power and influence and recognition, not that he particularly cared how he got it.

“Of course. It  _ infuriates  _ me!” Terex said, so intensely that Finn believed him. “Even Pryde’s days are numbered. He’ll be assassinated or if he’s lucky you’ll give him an honorable death. Oh, but I know you prefer to take prisoners. Reform them.” 

Terex chuckled, voice fading a little, as he tapped his head. “They tried that with me. Reprogramming. I think they did that to you, did they not? Only without the circuits…” 

Finn wasn’t sure whether Terex was talking about the First Order or the Republic. He wasn’t sure it mattered, here, as he began to have a bad feeling about this. 

“It’s killing me, Skywalker. The implants. And I want them to  _ burn  _ for attempting to control me. I wouldn’t mind it so much if they weren’t so—kriffing useless! It’s like they’re just making this up as they go along! No plans for galactic conquest, just galactic destruction!” Terex looked up, crazed. 

Finn did his best to keep his face neutral, even though it was taking everything in his power not to physically lean away from the other man. He hadn't been certain it was even  _ possible  _ for Terex to lose that closely held composure. Now that he had...it was unnerving, to say the very least.

And pitiable.

“Mustafar. Malastare. For the ships.” Terex was suddenly panting and sweating. His head looked...hot? Finn glanced at BB-8 to make sure the droid was still recording even if he wondered if he should try to get Terex to slow down or stop. “The training facilities for new stormtroopers are on Rattatak and Geonosis. The bank numbers will help you track down the rest. A single star destroyer is going to be a threat now, with Death Star tech on each one. Snoke’s disappeared, Ren, too. Scrapped the  _ Supremacy _ .” 

They hadn't known about the  _ Supremacy _ , but now it made sense why they'd heard nothing from Ren or Snoke lately. Finn grimaced. It surely meant the two were up to something none of them was going to like.

Terex lurched up again, like he was trying to grab Finn, forgetting about the binders. “They want the Skywalkers. Obsessed. A prophecy, maybe…some  _ banthashit _ .”

At this, Finn did stand up, but not out of disgust. There was something  _ very wrong _ here, with the sweat starting to pour down Terex’s temples and the wild, glassy look in his eyes. He turned to the guards.

“Get someone from medical here immediately,” he told them, while Terex continued to melt down—literally?—at the table. When the man had said his implants were killing him, Finn had thought he meant on a longer timescale than  _ these implants are about to cause my immediate death _ .

"It won't help, but you're a sweet boy. Always keen to help a former stormtrooper, aren't you?" Terex said, like was trying to be insulting, but through his grimace it came out grudgingly fond. 

Finn signaled urgently for the guard who was not calling medical to give him the keys to Terex’s binders. The guard balked and wouldn’t hand them over.

“He’s literally  _ dying _ , he’s not going anywhere,” Finn snarled, and he must’ve looked serious enough, because the woman wordlessly held them out for him to take.

"They're going to come for your children, Finn. They always come for the children. No fucking  _ plan _ but they always go after the children," Terex grimaced, then laughed, madly, and choked. "Like the wicked witch upset at not being invited to the baby's Lifeday."

“They’re not going to get my children,” Finn told Terex as he unlocked the binders, though it wasn’t like he was going to carry the message back to the First Order. “Do you know who they’re going to send? Just Ren? Or an army?” he asked.

Terex shook his head, crumpling in Finn's arms as Finn helped lower him to the floor. He was convulsing, now, and vaguely frothing at the mouth. His implants were literally smoking.

“Terex…” There was clearly nothing they could do, at this point, for Terex. The implants were killing him, and he would be long dead by the time they’d be able to remove them. Finn knelt next to the man, not sure if he was still aware of his surroundings.

“If you have anything left you feel like sharing, Terex, now would be the time,” Finn told him, feeling a little heartless. But the man had helped the First Order for years, had hurt Poe and Finn, and would undoubtedly be the cause of many deaths if their Death Star Destroyers couldn’t be found and destroyed before they were deployed. He had joined the Empire voluntarily, and wanted to see it return. 

But he was also a human. And Finn couldn’t, in all good conscience, deny him another human to hear his final words.

“Maybe in—another life, Finn. We might have been allies,” Terex said, coughing.

“Terex…” Finn began in warning. He’d heard this speech before.  _ We’re not so different, you and I… _

Terex waved a hand. “Not like that. Not if you were more like me. I mean if I—” he choked, “if I had been brave enough to be more like you.” 

Then he chuckled, wryly, though it cost him pain. His breathing began to slow. “I always wanted to fuck Poe Dameron, for one thing…”

In spite of himself, Finn frowned at the dying man.

"Really? That's what you're going with?" he asked. But he wished there'd been another world where Terex  _ had _ been brave enough to leave the First Order. Or the Empire. His tactical knowledge would have served him well in the Resistance, instead of being used to commit mass murder.

That was when Terex grabbed him by his jacket and tugged him forward, violently, convulsing. The guards reacted, drawing their weapons, but Finn waved them down, because it was clear that Terex was trying to tell him something. 

“The First Order is—f-f-ffffinished. Watch out for the  _ Sith _ .” Terex choked. Finn nearly choked, too: he could smell burning flesh and circuits. 

“What’s he saying? I can’t hear,” Leia said, as Poe leaned in to the microphone from the other room. 

BB-8 bleeped an alert that his recorder wasn’t picking him up. 

“C-cloning,” Terex gasped, so softly only Finn heard it. “The Emper...or…”

The medics rushed in, already too late. Terex shuddered one last time, and then his hands went slack, and he stopped gasping. 

Finn set his body on the ground and closed Terex’s eyes so they weren't staring blindly, and stood. He nodded at the medics, who knelt beside him. They worked on him for a while, but it was pretty obvious that they couldn’t salvage a body whose brain had literally caught fire. 

"We may have a problem," he said. The guards gave him puzzled looks, and he nodded for them to unlock the door so he could exit and speak with Poe.

He didn't want to spend any longer with Terex's dead body than he had to. 

Sevens was there, a welcome familiar face, waiting to take him to an adjoining room, where not just Poe, but Leia and Amilyn Holdo waited. BB-8 followed, about as visibly nervous as Finn felt. Poe immediately moved to embrace Finn, and then crouched to pat BB-8. “Buddy, are you alright?” 

“We’ll need a third-party medical examiner in here,” Amilyn said, speaking to some aides. “To confirm he died of—well, whatever the First Order did to him. And nothing Admiral Dameron here did to him—”

“I barely  _ touched  _ him,” Poe pointed out. “He’s been fighting those implants for years at this point.”

Leia’s gaze and words cut through their chatter straight to Finn. “He said something else, at the end, Finn. We didn’t hear. What was it?” 

"He said 'The First Order is finished. Watch out for the Sith,'" Finn answered, verbatim. But that wasn't the part that was really freaking him out. "And then he said 'cloning' and, I think, 'Emperor.'"

Poe actually laughed. "What, like,  _ the _ Emperor? Emperor Palpatine?"

"But he's dead. They wouldn't have any material to clone him  _ with _ , not after all this time. Right?" Finn asked the General. Darth Vader—her father, his grandfather—had killed the Emperor, after all, to prevent the man killing his son—Finn's  _ father _ . Surely they would already know if he wasn't really dead. Surely one of the Force users would sense him.

But it would have benefited Terex nothing to lie, not in his last moments.

Leia turned to BB-8. "Play back the recording."

But BB-8 hooted sadly, and they all knew what the droid meant before Poe translated: "They said they can play it back, but the mic didn't pick up anything like that."

" _ Fuck _ ," said Amilyn. 

"Finn," Leia said, her eyes intense. "Think. What exactly did he say?"

"That  _ is _ exactly what he said. He paused between cloning and Emperor. I don't know if he meant we should be concerned about both cloning and the Emperor separately, or concerned because they're trying  _ to  _ clone the Emperor," Finn answered. He shook his head apologetically—if only he'd been able to get  _ more _ . Even a clarification of what they now had would have been helpful. "I'm sorry. It was just that, and the part about the First Order being finished and to watch out for the Sith."

“That’s—okay, but that’s—” Poe spluttered, torn between laughing, blowing it off, and getting angry. “Okay, but his head was exploding when he said that! Let’s start with the verifiable, concrete stuff he gave us. I’m prepared to deploy our fleets to Malastare, Mustafar, Rattatak, and Geonosis. They can be away tomorrow.”

“I agree,” Amilyn said, eyeing Poe like she was as surprised as he was. “The Senate is already tracing the bank account numbers. Suspects have been summoned to the Senate and hearings will begin within the month.” 

“Wow, that must be, like, express lane for the Senate,” Poe snarked, their alliance broken. “Bet you we can have the First Order presence on those four planets mopped up by the end of the week.” 

“Ok, that’s great and all, but you didn’t hear him. Terex wasn’t confused. Maybe he somehow has bad intel, but he was telling the truth as he knew it. And can you really see him having intel that’s  _ that  _ bad?” Finn asked. “And who would make up something that ridiculous? What’s the use of inventing outlandish intelligence that no one will believe?”

“To freak us out? I don’t know. Terex hates me. He tried to kill you,” Poe pointed out. 

“There’s also the matter of, possibly... _ another _ Skywalker prophecy to consider,” Leia said, sounding weary. “And the fact that Kylo Ren is still…” 

Poe put a hand on her arm so she didn’t need to finish the sentence.

"Maybe we can't act on it, but I still think we need to be aware of it. We already know they have cloning tech," Finn said. In the meantime, there was plenty of actionable intelligence, and they had that on recordings. He had done what he came here to do. 

“That’s right,” Amilyn said, calmly. “Let us focus on what we can, here. The Senate is already doing a lot of good tracking down the financial supporters of the First Order. If we have locations of their shipyards and training facilities, we can do a lot of good with that. But we have to act quickly.” 

“Yeah, that’s good…” Poe began, but trailed off, looking between his husband and his aunt-in-law. 

Leia was staring at Finn. “I’m sorry, Finn. You don’t have to be here for this. Do you want to leave?” 

“Technically speaking, he  _ shouldn’t  _ be here for this,” Amilyn pointed out. 

“Yeah, neither should you,” Poe snapped back, slinging an arm protectively around Finn’s shoulder.

Finn put a hand up to pat the arm slung across his shoulder. He didn't know what he wanted.

"I'll stay if you want or need me to," he settled for, finally, leaving his preference out of it.

Leia, as the ranking officer and a family member, was only too glad to make that decision for him. “Thank you for your consultation today on the behalf of the SRTF, Mr. Dameron. I’ll have an escort take you back to the gate.” 

Poe kissed him, hard. “Probably gonna be late tonight, buddy. Uh. Don’t—don’t tell anyone—” 

He meant Rey, specifically, even though he felt bad about that, but Holdo interjected here, saving him: “Of course this should be considered highly classified.”

"I won't even tell the koyo trees," Finn answered, going for some levity, but it fell somewhat flat. There was no real way to lighten this situation.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Something to keep our American readers occupied while waiting in line at the polls today! VOTE!
> 
> Thanks for sticking with us and our new slow posting schedule! 😪

After Finn had shaken hands all around, and left, he met up with Sevens at the door. 

They seemed relieved, but also disinclined to discuss what had just happened.

"So has Torch lit anything on fire recently?" Finn asked, finally, halfway back to the gate, and they laughed.

"Not quite. He's been very serious. I think he's not used to being in command, yet, but he'll find his way, just like you did," they answered.

Finn found himself wondering if Torch had considered making Sevens his second-in-command. He could certainly do worse than their quiet confidence. 

In the meantime, any misgivings Finn might have had about leaving the military behind him had been soundly vaporized after hearing from Terex. If anything, his interest—though still not desire—in learning to use the Force had increased, since it sounded like the real battle was going to be fought on that front. And he wondered, not for the first time, what the Force ghosts thought of this—if Anakin and Obi Wan had grown frustrated with their families yet.

Sevens was watching him, maybe trying to guess what he was thinking, and he smiled at them. "It's...a lot," he said.

"Sir?" they asked, clearly caught off-guard by the statement.

"Retiring, and trying to get to used to it, and then all this. It's a lot more to deal with than I expected," he said, and then laughed. "It's  _ almost _ harder than not being retired, because at least then, I knew what I was doing. Not that I in any way regret my decision, _ especially _ after today."

After today, he was going to be glad to go home, feed the animals, help cook dinner, and enjoy being with his family. While dodging questions from Rey, who with nothing to distract her was going to probably be relentless in trying to figure out where Poe was—half out of genuine concern, and half to tease Finn.

That was, she probably would unless Finn could find a distraction, like a pilot friend and her ex-stormtrooper significant other.

"What are you and Jess doing for dinner?" Finn asked Sevens suddenly. "Would you like to come out to the farm?"

“Sir?” Sevens looked surprised, but smiled. “We  _ are  _ both off-duty tonight, actually. Jess was mentioning how she hadn’t seen Sam in a while.”

Finn smiled, because Sam would be  _ overjoyed _ to see Jess, who always made him laugh and frequently brought him chocolate.

"I don't know what we're having, but I'm sure it'll be good even if I help Kes make it. And Sam will be excited to see both you and Jess. So will Rey," he answered. 

Sevens smiled at Finn shyly. “I’ll ask her, but I think the answer will be yes. You comm me if you need to call it off, if Rey’s not feeling well.” 

They stopped at the gate, Sevens buzzing him out. “You going to be alright going home, sir?”

"Yeah, I'll be alright. It'll give me time to come up with whatever happened at the SRTF meeting that I was here for," Finn answered, though he appreciated Sevens' concern. "You're alright?" he asked them in return. Terex, with his close association to the First Order and past threats of reprogramming to any ex-stormtrooper he could get his hands on, was enough to unsettle anyone. And Sevens couldn't exactly discuss this with Jess. She wouldn’t get it as well as Finn did.

Sevens shrugged. “Glad he’s dead. Glad he got a taste of his own medicine.” They winked at Finn. “They don’t pay me to have opinions, sir.” 

“Actually, they do. You’re in the Republic now.” 

…

Ordinarily, on any given weekday, Rey would have found herself training, not clambering around inside a borderline-ancient starfighter that the Tico sisters were working on. But ordinarily, she also wouldn't have received a message on her datapad over breakfast to ask for her help—and promise a day off from training to get her hands covered in engine grease and oil and dirt.

"Okay. Remind me what we're doing with this hatch after we get it off," she said to Paige, who was helping her remove a very stubborn panel to get at the wiring behind it. 

“Just giving her a tune-up,” Paige informed Rey cheerfully, while Rose groaned. 

“Never mind that we’re in the Republic now and can actually get decent equipment! Never mind that you’re Gold Squadron Leader now, and could request an all-new ship!” she squeaked in annoyance. “Noooo. This one is ‘lucky!’ A lucky piece of shit!” 

“Right. I’m really grateful for your help,” Paige added, ignoring her little sister.

"Well, it's certainly smaller than the  _ Falcon _ , but I think I can still get to the wires. Unless you want to?" Rey said to Paige, but then went ahead anyway. She finally succeeded in loosening the hatch and gave it a dubious look, secretly agreeing with Rose. This old ship had seen some better days. But it was still flight-worthy, and pilots were weird about their luck. Rey wasn't about to start trying to interfere in  _ that _ one.

“Where’s Sam today?” Rose asked, crouching in the small space on the other side of Rey. 

“With Luke and Mara. Finn had some sort of meeting today, and apparently the two best mechanics on base—”

“Hey, I’m just a pilot,” Paige defended. 

“Oh, no, hey! Hey, there it is! You gotta get the calibrator aligned—I really could take it from there, Rey—”

“I know, I’ve got it,” Rey grunted, trying to maneuver her bulk around in such a small place. There was a spark, and the ship gave a comfortable hum. “Hey!” 

Paige cheered. “That’s it!” 

“You got it!” Rose echoed. “I don’t know why I didn’t think about bypassing the—Rey, are you okay?”

Rey tried again to extricate herself from the messy tangle of wires and machinery, and encountered more difficulty. Had the twins shifted?

“I...think I’m stuck,” she admitted. It had been a bad idea to wedge herself in here when she was this big. And oddly shaped. She’d have fit in here nine months ago...or, hell, even  _ one  _ month ago...

There was a pause, and then the Tico sisters exploded into laughter. 

“Oh my gosh!” Rose asked, recovering first. “Are you okay?”

“You can’t be stuck!” Paige cried, still laughing. “Oh my gods, I got a Jedi stuck in my ship! That’s a first! Come on, Rose, grab a leg.” 

“ _ No _ ! Are we gonna hurt you if we pull? Are we gonna hurt the babies?” Rose asked anxiously.

Rey laughed, but not too hard because she had fairly limited lung space with two babies taking up so much room.

"No, no, they'll be fine. If I were  _ that _ stuck, you'd have to find someone to take this old thing apart at the joints, since your only scavenger is stuck. Just pull. I'll tell you to stop if there's a problem," she said, and felt hands wrap around her ankles. She laughed at how incredibly ridiculous this would look to the idle passerby. She thought about mind-tricking them all:  _ Nothing to see here. Just two mechanics pulling a pregnant Jedi out of an engine by her ankles. Go about your business. Move along _ . 

"I'll even help!" she added, now giggling helplessly, too, as she grabbed onto a firmly-anchored strut near her head. "On three, you pull and I'll push!"

“This is so—oh my gosh!” Rose cried, as they pulled and finally un-wedged her with a laugh. “Rey! Rey, are you alright?” 

Paige was too busy laughing, now, of course, and Rey joined her. Now people really were staring at the three women, helpless with laughter.

“Stop, stop, don’t make me laugh, they always kick me when I laugh!” Rey cried, holding her belly. “There! There, you can feel it!” 

"Really?" Rose asked, putting her hand next to Rey's, and then squeaked as one of the babies kicked against her hand. "You  _ can _ !" she yelped, and looked in surprise from her hand over to Rey's belly. "That's kind of weird," she added.

"You're telling me!" Rey replied. 

"Rose used to kick a lot. I remember our mom showing me. I guess she's always liked fighting people!" Paige said, and Rose stuck her tongue out at her.

"Look who my sister is! I had to come out swinging!" Rose said, and then yelped when her sister got her into a headlock. 

"See? Aren't you glad you have this to look forward to?" Paige asked Rey. 

"You're right, you know, being married to Poe and Finn I definitely know nothing about dealing with  _ children _ on a daily basis," Rey said. 

“That’s fair.” Rose laughed, once she was free of her sister's grip. "Hey, how is the little guy? Sam, I mean. Speaking of children. Actual children. I haven’t seen him in a few weeks."

"Oh, he's a joy, as usual. Mostly. He can pick toys up with the Force, which would be worse if he wasn't willing to humor us and leave them when we set them out of his way. But if he really doesn't feel like leaving them alone, there's nothing to stop him," Rey answered. Sam was, thankfully, as good-natured as his dad, and didn't seem inclined to start adopting the more difficult natures of either his mom or his papa any time soon.

"He's  _ very _ excited to be a brother, and also  _ very _ bad at meditating when I take him with me to training. But he tries so hard, and it's so cute it shouldn't be  _ possible _ ," she added. But Finn exhibited the same restlessness when he was meditating, which was funny. Like father, like clone, apparently.

"I assume you've got it covered, but if you need us to look after him for a few days when you bring the new ones home, I will drop everything and be there. What Resistance? What job?" Rose offered. 

Paige rolled her eyes. "Right when all of them go on leave? Yeah, right. We'll be pulling double shifts."

"Neither of us can do  _ Poe's  _ job," Rose said, and now the two sisters were obviously bickering.

"Hey," Rey said, trying to cut off the argument before it got going. "Do you two want to come over for dinner?"

“For dinner? At Kes Dameron’s?” Paige asked, “Of  _ course  _ we want to come to dinner!”

“Kes probably isn’t cooking. Or maybe he is? Finn might be helping…” Rey ventured, as always, worried about there being enough food. “I might be helping, if I invited guests. Better message Finn…” 

“Are you sure you’ll still have a kitchen left? Wait. He’s not making pancakes, is he?” Rose asked. Rey laughed, because apparently she and Finn were never going to live down the time they’d tried to cook pancakes on a hot starfighter engine.

“That was  _ once _ , and we didn’t even burn anything down. Yes, there will be a kitchen left. Kes will probably help, in all fairness,” she answered.

“Heck  _ yes _ ,” Paige said before Rose could jump in, “What time do you want us there?”

…

And so it happened that the Dameron farm hosted not one, not two, but four guests for dinner that evening. 

“Ai, it’s good having so many young people in the kitchen,” Kes exclaimed. Jess and Rose played on the floor in the other room with Sam while Kes, Finn, Sevens, and Paige helped cook. Or, mostly Kes cooked, while the others cut vegetables and meat and (in Sevens’ case) reached tall things for him. 

“Sorry,” Rey said. “You get invited for dinner, you get to make it, apparently.” 

From the other room, Sam screeched, distressed that Auntie Jess was insisting she had his nose when his nose was still clearly on his face.

"Don't make my kid cry!" Rey called in warning, but apparently Sam's nose had already been restored—the sound of high-pitched laughter followed Rey's warning.

"Watch it, hot p—Sevens! Careful," Finn yelped as he turned with a hot pan and nearly collided with Sevens, who was trying to reach a bowl above Kes' head. They jumped back and steadied Finn's hands in the same motion, and then both started laughing.

"Okay, okay. Too many cooks in the kitchen, someone has to get out of the way," Finn said after he'd drained the pot, and Sevens took immediate advantage of the situation to go join Jess and Rose in the other room.

Paige, however, was perfectly happy to lurk and eat chips and dip while she watched and occasionally helped, but mostly talked about starship engines with Rey. 

“When are we expecting Poe?” Kes wondered. “He’s been working late a lot. Not that I have  _ ever  _ known when I can expect him, but I thought you might be a good influence on him.”

"Uh, not sure, but I think late. Something came up, I think, but I don't remember what," Finn answered, trying to sound as off-handed as possible. He went over to get a chip and some dip, and promptly coughed.

"Oh no, Finn, that's spicy!" Rey laughed as she turned to the fridge and got out blue milk to pour him a glass.

" _ Force _ , what is  _ in  _ that?" he asked after he'd cooled the burning in his mouth. “I swear you are just trying to kill my tastebuds off at this point.” 

“Poe probably goes easy on you when he cooks,” Jess said, squeezing Finn’s shoulder as she moved past him to help set the table. “Kes is doing the dad thing, you know, trying to make sure you’re tough, or something.” 

“Gods know  _ Luke  _ isn’t going to do that,” Kes pointed out with a wink. “He’s too soft. Also he likes bland food. Blue milk? Eugh!”

"I'm not even sure Luke can  _ cook _ ," Rey commented. "He brings sandwiches to training all the time, but it's Wedge who makes them. Also, sandwiches aren't cooking."

Finn ate a few more chips and gave the salsa a look of deep betrayal. He  _ liked _ salsa—as long as it was so mild Poe insisted it was basically tomato juice.

“On some level we should feel sorry for him,” Paige, who could take the piss out of anyone, began, grinning brazenly at Rey this time, instead of Finn: “it’s not his fault he grew up in a desert junkyard.” 

“See, junkyard!” Finn called. 

“Okay, but wait, you guys haven’t seen Jakku recently—” 

“I thought Luke was from Tatooine?” 

Kes laughed loudly as the chatter derailed to loud arguing.

"Don't worry, though, dinner will be mild. Have to make sure our ex-stormtroopers can eat, too, even if they have a lower spice tolerance than Sam," Kes said, when they finally quieted. Sevens, who had rejoined them in the kitchen, grinned and took a chip.

"No wait—" Finn started, but they didn't even try to go for the salsa.

"See,  _ I _ know better," they told him smugly.

“Rose, my dear, supper is almost ready, if you want to get Sam in his chair!” Kes called. 

Rose came in, babbling baby talk very seriously with Sam, and continued talking with him as she put him into his high chair. 

The meal commenced with some chaos and lots of chatter. Rey was finished eating before the last person got their plate, and Finn and Kes, as the hosts of the evening, stood or sat on the counter. Between Rose and Jess, Sam wanted for nothing, not even a bath and a clean diaper at the end of the night. 

Rey found Finn staring off into space while washing the dishes, when everyone else was in the main room playing with Sam. “Credit for your thoughts?”

Finn didn't realize he was standing around halfway through washing dishes until Rey spoke to him, and then he was caught red-handed.

"Hm?" he said, snapping himself out of it, and started washing again. "Oh, it's nothing. STRF stuff, you know, thinking through how to handle the next group of them here and worrying about potential problems," he said, which had the benefit of being perfectly plausible even if it wasn't entirely truthful. But he  _ had _ thought about them very briefly before his thoughts had turned to Terex and the Emperor and the threat against Sam and the twins.

Rey grinned at him expectantly, like she knew he wasn't being wholly truthful. "And? Come on, what’s really eating you?” 

“It’s about to be me, I’m starving,” Poe said from where he leaned in through the open kitchen window. 

“There you are! I thought you had left us for a younger couple, Poe!” Rey scolded, but Poe, bright and boyish as ever, even getting home after a thirteen-hour day, leaned in at the window and kissed her, and then Finn. He paused to listen, briefly. “You guys having a party?”

"Only by accident," Finn laughed, "I invited Sevens and Jess, and Rey invited Rose and Paige, and we made an evening of it! We were just cleaning up." He nodded to the sink, almost empty of dishes, and held up soapy hands.

"We saved you some, of course," Rey added. There had been leftovers besides, as well. Even Sevens, Jess, Rose, and Paige were no match for Kes' ability to whip up astounding amounts of good food with little to no warning.

“Dishes?” Poe laughed. 

“PAPA!” Sam cried excitedly, leaning out of Jess’ arms towards Poe when she brought him to the kitchen.

Poe, more interested in seeing his boy than he was hungry, caught him up and spun him around. 

Sam shrieked in delight, and then immediately burst into tears. 

“Oh my gosh, Sammy, mijo, what’s the matter, my boy?” Poe asked, kissing all over his face. 

“Daddy said I—I could stay up 'til you got h-h-home,” Sam sobbed, clearly more tired than upset and throwing himself dramatically against Poe’s chest.

“Uh-oh,” Poe said, rocking Sam and rubbing his back, “well, you know when Daddy makes a rule, it’s usually a good one.”

Sam sniffed hugely. “Yeah?” 

“Yeah, but maybe we can stretch it a little. Gotta say night-night to all these people, and  _ maybe  _ we’ll do music time before bed.” 

Sam settled somewhat, nodding. “Music time.” Then he shot up. “Say night-night to sisstohs!”

“Yep, definitely can’t forget them,” Poe agreed. 

Finn, watching his husband and his son, was aware he was smiling a particularly besotted smile, and wasn't even bothered when Jess caught him at it and bumped his elbow with hers.

"You're dripping all over the floor," she said when he looked over at her.

"It's seen worse," Rey answered. She reached around Jess to put away the last dry dish and then gestured to Sam. " _ You  _ remember how much this kid drooled!" Jess laughed, because she absolutely  _ did _ remember.

When Poe positioned him, Sam threw his arms around Rey’s belly. 

“Nigh-nigh!” he cried, kissing her stomach. Poe then swooped him up to face level with Rey. “Nigh-nigh, Mama!” 

This repeated until Sam had said goodnight to all his family members and their guests. 

“I’ll just take him upstairs, guys, don’t leave before I get back!” Poe whispered, with a tuckered out toddler resting against his shoulder. 

By the time Sam was tucked into a clean diaper and pajamas, and Poe had helped him brush his teeth (he had a special arm attachment with just a toothbrush on it that he liked to use) and washed his face (this Poe had to do for him), he was nearly asleep, but crying because he still wanted music time. So Poe brought his quetarra back from his room, to find Sam still stubbornly awake, and he sat down and sang for him:

_ “Baby, I can feel the rush of adrenaline _ _   
_ _ I'm not scared to jump if you want to _ __   
_ Let's just fall in love for the hell of it _ _   
_ __ Maybe we'll just keep fallin'.”

Poe looked up at this point, but Sam was asleep before he got to the next verse. 

Downstairs, Poe walked in on a sabacc game already in progress. He slid onto the bench beside Finn. He might have gone all the way down to rest his head in his lap, except that Rey’s feet were already there.

Finn was not especially good at sabacc, but with Rey and Poe's help, he managed to win a couple of hands before first Rose, and then Sevens started yawning. When Rey, too, stifled a yawn, they all agreed that they'd been awake long enough, and ended the game on a draw.

"You're alright to get back to the base? No need to go flying into trees when we have extra beds," Kes said as they all stood at the front door to say their goodbyes. He had already packed leftovers for the Tico sisters and Sevens and Jess to take home, to both parties' delight.

"We'll be alright. Thanks, though," Paige answered, "And thanks again for inviting us to dinner, Rey!" she added before herding her sister back to their speeder.

"Same here. It's a short trip," Jess answered as well. Sevens nodded in agreement, but seemed sleepy enough to have temporarily lost their voice. But it had been a long day, and Finn sympathized.

When everyone was finally gone, he was more than happy to flop into bed, even though Rey grumbled at both him and her inability to do the same. 

Poe stayed downstairs to catch up with his dad, briefly, and the lights were low when he made his way up to their room. Sleepily, he remembered climbing these stairs when he was not much older than Sam, and finding his parents asleep or nearly asleep in this room. For a bewildering moment he was at once a child and a man, with his own child—children, and the people in his bed were his parents and his spouses. 

Boy, he really was tired. But it was a beautiful moment. 

Better than his day, anyway. 

“How you doing, my loves?” he asked, stripping out of his clothes and heading through to the adjacent washroom to get ready for bed. 

"Finn is showing off," Rey said, to a muffled laugh from Finn.

"Rey is being whiney," Finn replied. But he stood back up and, when Rey went to grab at her socks to take them off, pushed her arm gently away.

"I can  _ do _ it," she told him, and he rolled his eyes at her.

"Whiney  _ and _ petulant," Finn updated Poe. But Rey was tired enough to want help even if she didn't  _ need _ it, so she let Finn help her undress. 

“Showing off...his ability to remove socks?” Poe guessed, and rubbed his face. “Or his ability to lay on his chiseled abs…?” 

“Ugggghhhh don’t  _ remind  _ me!” Rey wailed. “My eight-pack!!”

“Okay, genuinely, Rey, and I love you when I say this, but you haven’t had an eight-pack in, like, years,” Poe pointed out. “It has nothing to do with being pregnant.” 

Rey threw a hand over her face. “I’m not talking to either of you.”

“Rey, sweetheart, an eight-pack only comes with literal starvation and dehydration!” Poe tried, but Rey and Finn ignored him. 

“Not talking.” 

"Are you suuuure?" Finn asked, and then when that received no reply, reached over to gently peel Rey's hand off her face.

"Really sure?" he asked, and then kissed her hand, which at least earned him an eyeroll and a smile that Rey tried to turn into a mock-frown, with very little success. But she still didn't make a sound.

"And after I helped you with your  _ socks _ ," Finn told her, "Your gross, sweaty socks—"

"They were  _ not _ sweaty!" Rey said, but now Finn was grinning at her, and she looked between him and Poe and smiled.

"You're both being ridiculous," she laughed. 

“Well, how was your day, Rey?” Poe asked, sliding into bed on Finn’s other side, leaving Rey the edge this time in part so she could get up to use the toilet when she needed and in part so she could kick Finn in her sleep for a change. He closed his eyes immediately, but only saw Terex’s smoking skull behind his eyelids, so he opened them again. 

Rey grunted, rolling onto her side and getting her pillow in position. “Fine. Sam was good. Mara’s a wonderful grandmother. I got stuck in an engine. I’m a slug.” 

She laughed, and Poe and Finn laughed, too. 

“Only temporarily a slug," Finn said, and Rey gasped in mock-offense.

"Finnegan Dameron!" she scolded, but the effect was somewhat lost, as she was already giggling. Finn wrapped his arms around his head to protect from a brutal assault-by-pillow.

It didn't last long, because Rey ran out of breath and flopped back down onto her carefully arranged body pillow.

"How were your days?" she asked after she'd caught her breath. Finn glanced over at Poe but answered first.

"You know, just the one meeting. Pretty much the usual," he said. “Fed the chickens, helped Dad…” 

"That's right, you said you had an SRTF meeting. Is that why Sevens was so quiet? Quieter than usual, I mean," she asked, and Finn frowned.

"They were quiet?" he asked. Rey looked over at him, unimpressed that he was pretending not to have noticed and well-aware that he paid more attention than that. "I mean—yes, we had a meeting. Maybe they were just thinking. Or tired.  _ I'm  _ tired," he added. 

“I could show you my calendar for today which had me triple-booked twice, so that should tell you the kind of day I had,” Poe said, moving so quickly through it she hopefully couldn’t tell it was a lie, especially since he had cleared his schedule for dealing with Terex. “Boring and stressful and have I mentioned lately how much  _ less  _ stressful it is being a Commander when there’s a war on than an Admiral when you’re trying to keep peace on?” 

Rey laughed and ran her hands through his hair. “No good parts?” 

“I mean, I kriffed your husband in a supply closet for old times,” Poe offered, because he knew that was one train of thought Rey would not pursue. 

He glanced at Finn for confirmation to seal the fib.

"It was between two of the triple-booked meetings," Finn confirmed.

"Gross. A  _ supply closet _ , really?" Rey said, and then added "No, that doesn't require an answer. No more talking about sex in supply closets."

"You  _ did _ ask…" Finn said, and Rey rolled her eyes, then kissed him just to shut him up.

“I mean, but we can still do that, right? I mean, what about when I get of a certain age and only supply closets will do it for me?” Poe replied, eyes already closing. “Rey, do me a favor. If you plan on going into labor, can it wait until at least 0600?” 

Rey laughed. “I’ll forward that order, but I doubt if it’ll be obeyed. I don’t think the girls are going to be very good at following orders.” 

“Just like their fathers,” Poe said, just as Finn said, “Just like their mother,” and they laughed themselves to sleep. 


	7. Chapter 7

If Luke had wondered why Finn’s once-weekly visits to training had morphed, in one week, to thrice-weekly visits, he didn’t ask. He simply welcomed Finn with a bemused smile the third afternoon he showed up and motioned for the other students to make some space.

He said nothing until the other students had left, while Finn remained to practice what he’d failed to master during the afternoon.

“Finn, you know you can’t  _ force _ the Force,” Luke reminded Finn gently, trying not to break his concentration. Finn, seeming not to hear him and instead growing frustrated, was trying to lift multiple rocks into the air on brute force alone. Mostly, he was succeeding in giving himself a headache.

Luke waved for him to stop and he finally gave up, blinking a little hard and frowning deeply.

“I just did this yesterday,” he grumbled. He had to get better at this. He had to learn to use the Force consistently, or he wasn’t going to be of any use protecting his family if and when Terex’s dying words became truth. Luke motioned for him to come sit down with him in the shade. Finn gave the stones a somewhat wistful look and nearly tried again, but he could recognize when he was fighting a losing battle. He reluctantly followed Luke to the shade.

“I just don’t understand how you stopped a Death-Star level blast and struggle to lift stones,” Luke chuckled. He sat heavily, groaning, seeming suddenly quite old, though he wasn’t, really. Kes Dameron was the same age as him, and still spry and active. “Let’s talk about that some more.”

The phrase sounded like something Dr. Kalonia would have said, and Finn chuckled.

"Desperation? Terror? I didn't really have much choice, if I wanted to try to save everyone. And it's not like I did it by myself," he replied. Fear was a powerful motivator. “There’s stories of parents who lift speeders to save their trapped children, so maybe what I did was the Force equivalent. I did it when I needed to.” 

“This is a bit more than a mother lifting a few thousand kilos to save her child, Finn. Do you know what Death Star laser tech is made from?” Luke asked. Finn might have known, but this was a rhetorical question, and Luke continued. “It’s focused by massive kyber crystals. The same that are in my lightsaber.” 

Luke took his weapon out, Anakin Skywalker’s lightsaber, and handed it to Finn to show him. “Take it apart.”

Finn took the lightsaber and turned it over in his hands, looking for some indication of how to take it apart. He glanced over at Luke to see if he was joking, and Luke grinned at him.

"You can disassemble and reassemble a blaster with your eyes closed," he chuckled, and pointed to a little lever that was carefully hidden in a recess on the side of the saber. Finn rolled his eyes good-naturedly, but once the lever had been pried open, the rest of the lightsaber came apart more or less straightforwardly, and he set the pieces in front of them—except the kyber crystal, which he held out in the palm of his hand.

“Try lifting that,” Luke said. 

Finn sucked in a breath, and focused, and it nearly jumped out of his hand. 

“Aha. See. You’re very attuned to the Force.”

"It's also small..." Finn ventured, though he was pleased it had moved so easily. "Is it always easier for Force users to lift kyber crystals instead of regular rocks? That seems like it would be a fairly serious weakness to powering weapons with them," he said, tilting his hand a little so the crystal would roll across his palm and then back. 

“That’s just it, though—it’s not, usually. But this kyber crystal in particular is attuned to me, and to my father before me, and now you. My lightsaber even called to Rey because of what you awakened in her. You picked it up to protect her, and she wielded it against Kylo Ren because of her love for you.  _ He  _ couldn’t budge it, even though it’s so small.”

Finn nodded, because this made sense, in a way. And he remembered how Rey's crystals had drawn her, even underground on Mortis, where the Force had nearly been a physical, tangible thing.

"The Death Star tech crystals aren't attuned to anyone, though, right? So that still doesn't explain how I stopped the blast, even for a short time. Maybe I stopped it because I didn't know I shouldn't be able to," he ventured. 

Luke gave him a quizzical look, but didn't interrupt.

"I thought about how Yoda told you once—er...well, you-on-holos, I don’t actually know if he ever said this to you in real life—that the difference between lifting a small rock and a big X-Wing was only in your mind. And Kylo Ren stopped a blaster shot, once, while I was watching," Finn started explaining. "I remember thinking maybe the theory would be the same—that technically a blast from a Star Destroyer should be no different than from a blaster, except in my mind. So I...pretended they were the same. I didn't know it wasn't that simple," he finished. Then he laughed, reaching out again to lift the kyber crystal from his palm, relishing the ease with which it moved.

"Did I mention I was desperate? And terrified," he added.

“And in love. You were doing it to protect people you love,” Luke said, humming softly to himself as he got up. It was a habit he had picked up from Yoda, the sort of tuneless humming, and he led Finn inside the little house he shared with Wedge, Mara, and Archex. Finn didn’t ask as Luke started rummaging, and finally the old Jedi unearthed a large crate, and slid it over to Finn. “I think the answer will be in here, in the Jedi Sacred Texts. Full of prophecies. Maybe the one the Sith are after right now will be in there, so it might help the war effort—”

“I don’t know anything about a Sith prophecy,” Finn said carefully, with an air of  _ How do YOU know anything about a Sith prophecy? That’s classified! I haven’t even told my wife about that _ ! 

“Well, anyway. Take a look. You’ll probably need C3PO. I just know that there was a prophecy about my father, and when he didn’t fulfill it, it passed to me and my sister, and if we don’t fulfill it, it’ll pass to you and Kylo Ren, and I don’t think  _ he’ll  _ fulfill it...”

"Not if it's anything good, anyway," Finn agreed, lifting the crate to carry it back out to his speeder. He stowed it carefully, already itching to read the old texts, and returned to Luke, who considered him for a moment before smiling.

"Perhaps we can say that the rest of your lesson today is to read," he suggested, and Finn laughed.

"Only if I can find C3PO…" Finn answered, but he was happy enough to head home with the crate and sit in the kitchen idly flicking through them while he waited for the droid to answer the message he'd sent him, or else to show up at the front door and just start talking.

… 

He still had the books spread over the table when Kes came in to start fixing dinner.

"Light reading, mijo?" he asked, and Finn started, accidentally kicking the table as he sat back from the page he was reading. It turned out he didn't need C3PO for  _ all  _ of the texts, but this one was more history than prophecy. He rubbed his eyes as he sat back. 

"Luke gave them to me," he replied, but when he started to close the book to put it away, Kes waved at him to stop.

"I  _ can  _ cook dinner by myself. You read," he said, and when Finn hesitated, gave him one last wave for good measure.

Finn smoothed the page back down, wondered briefly what the Jedi authors of such ancient and venerable texts would think of their books being read by a farmer-Jedi-in-training at an old kitchen table (albeit with a Force tree in the front yard), and continued.

He was just getting into the really hairy stuff—and frankly a little lost—when a rumbling speeder sound outside told him Rey had arrived. Before the engine shut off, Finn could already hear that she had a guest in tow:

“Mistress Rey, I beg you to allow me—” 

“Threepio, I can get a door. I need to help  _ you  _ off the speeder.” 

“Maker, no! Mistress Rey, I would sooner fall than impose upon you, but I assure you—oh! No! No, no, Rey!” 

Finn choked on laughter as he looked out the window to see C-3PO floating in the air and flailing violently. Rey giggled as she set him gently down on the lawn and reached back into the speeder to unbuckle Sam from his seat. 

"Pick your battles, Threepio," Finn suggested, smiling fondly as he went out the door to greet them. While Rey turned to stick her tongue out at him, C-3PO continued to look flustered, and Finn tried a different tack: distraction. "Did Luke send you? He gave me some books that he said I might need your help translating, and he was not wrong."

He didn't mention that there was far more translating than could likely be accomplished in one evening, equally hesitant to deal with an overexcited Threepio. 

Rey dumped Sam off in Finn’s arms and headed towards the house in search of a bathroom, while C-3PO was only too happy to continue speaking to Finn. 

“I am fluent in over seven million forms of communication, Master Finn, but unfortunately, when it comes to dead languages that fluency drops to less than one hundred thousand, and not all of them at 100%. However, with enough time and material, I am confident I could construct an approximation!” 

"Oh, okay. Well, at least we can try. Maybe we should start with section titles," Finn said as he herded Threepio up the stairs and into the house. The texts were still scattered all over the table, so he pulled one over and held it out to the droid. It was one of the ones he'd set aside early on as a lost cause until he could get Threepio to translate.

The trick would be keeping any Sith prophecies Threepio translated from Rey, given the droid's love of talking. She just didn’t need the extra stress right now.

Sam patted Finn’s chest urgently. “Dada, Dada, duess what?” he asked, slurring the rest of his apparently very busy day into a long string of nonsense.

"Whoa, Sammy, slow down a little!" Finn laughed, because at this rate he was going to need Threepio to translate for his own son, as opposed to translating ancient Jedi texts. Sam paused and took a deep breath, then started over again—but at a speed that still made whatever he was making into utter nonsense.

Sometimes all you could do with children was smile and nod. 

“We gonna have the Admiral for dinner tonight?” Rey asked, like Finn or Kes knew more than she did, but was immediately distracted by all the books. “Ooh, the Sacred Texts? Why do you have these? Did Wedge finally make him throw them out?”

"Maybe?" Finn said, in answer to both questions. He didn't know Poe's schedule off the top of his head, though he did know their husband was certainly on the planet at the moment. It was really more a matter of how busy he was.  _ More pips, more paperwork _ indeed.

"Luke sent the books. He thought I might want to read them and see if there's anything interesting in them," Finn answered. It had the added benefit of being honest, which meant he could say it without getting nervous and giving away that he was being less than fully truthful t his wife who could read his mind. And anyway, it was entirely possible there was nothing in the texts related to any Sith prophecies. Not probable, but always possible.

"Do any handstands today?" he asked Rey a little jokingly as she went through the pile of texts, and earned an eyeroll for it..

"Just because I'm perfectly round now, Finn, doesn’t mean walking on my hands is any easier," Rey scolded, groaning into a chair and pulling a book over to her to flip through. 

Kes was humming to himself as he fried root chips, and 3PO seemed distracted by reading, transcribing the material onto a datapad for later analysis. He was obviously hampered by his clumsy arms, so Finn reached over to help, holding down a page. A rarity for 3PO, this work was silent. 

"Did you and Luke have a productive day?" Rey asked.

Finn shrugged, still not happy with his inconsistent ability to use the Force. He was certain he'd never been this inconsistent with a weapon, or with hand-to-hand, or with anything. He wasn't even inconsistent with piloting (there he was consistently  _ bad _ ). 

It made him grouchy.

"Not really. I moved a kyber crystal, but I couldn't move little stones. He gave me the books in hopes I could find something helpful in them," he responded. "So, you know, if you know of a way to search the texts  _ with _ the Force, it would certainly make things go a lot faster…"

Rey giggled. "No, I—who's that?"

She looked to the window, almost standing up, something like terror flashing across her eyes.

But when Finn looked to the window, no one was there. He glanced over at Kes, but he'd been busy stirring and hadn't seen anything, either.

"A shadow? Or maybe Madine hunting bugs?" Finn asked, but Rey shook her head. 

“I definitely saw someone. A man.”

“Is Poe home?” Kes asked, not turning around. 

“No. Taller. Bald.” 

Kes turned, and he and Finn made eye contact. That didn’t describe any of the hired farmhands, or any neighbors...

"Ok… I'll go check. Stay here," Finn said, and was a little surprised when Rey didn't demand to join him. Kes did, though, following him to the door like he intended to provide backup.

It seemed a little silly, given that prowlers were unlikely to be poking around this far from anything like a town, but if it'd put Rey's mind at ease, he supposed it was worth taking seriously. 

He made a full perimeter of the house, waving at one of the new farm workers—her name was Sity and she was far from tall or bald—and came around the other side to nearly run into Poe, holding Crix Madine. 

“Whoa!” Poe said. He was smiling, but tired around the eyes. His speeder sat in the background: Finn hadn’t heard him arrive over the background hum of insects. “What’s going on? Lose something?”

"Rey says she saw someone at the window.” 

Poe looked around. “Me?” 

“Taller, apparently.” 

“Ouch.” 

Poe wasn’t taking this seriously, and Finn frown. 

“ _ And _ bald. Seen any suspicious old bald guys skulking around out here?" Finn answered. He glanced back over his shoulder as if someone might have appeared, but there was no one. 

“What, like my dad?” Poe teased loudly. Finn still looked around, so Poe followed his gaze, scratching Crix Madine’s ears. “I just pulled up and I didn’t see anyone.” 

"I guess it was a trick of the light, but she was very certain," he added, and then shrugged and leaned carefully around Crix to give Poe a kiss, taking in for a moment how tired he looked. "I'm glad you're home tonight," he told him, smiling softly.

“Yeah, ya know, my  _ much  _ younger mistress was busy tonight, so I thought I’d come home to you two,” Poe joked, rolling his eyes, going in for a kiss when Finn glared at him. 

“Gross.” 

Poe laughed. “I’m glad I’m home while it’s still daylight, honestly.”

BB-8 zoomed past them inside, bleating excitedly. 

“What,  _ Threepio’s _ here?”

"Rey brought him, though now that I think of it, they never did tell me why. I distracted him with a bunch of old Jedi texts," Finn answered. "Luke sent them home with me to study, but over half of them need translating, so Threepio is helping."

Poe sighed. He was way too tired to deal with C-3PO, as good and helpful and wonderful a droid as he was. The fact of the matter was the protocol droid’s anxiety grated precisely to wear away Poe’s otherwise reasonable patience. 

Finn was about to suggest they go back inside when there were footsteps around the corner of the house and Kes appeared, startling everyone including himself. Poe and Finn both found themselves (embarrassingly) reaching to their hips for blasters neither of them were actually wearing.

“Dad! I thought we were looking for a marauder!” Poe scolded. 

"Ah, so  _ this _ is why you didn't come back! You're home early, mijo," he said. "Rey is going to come after  _ all _ of us if we don't go back inside.” . 

“Right, right, sorry,” Poe said, scratching Crix Madine and setting him down gently. The days were long past where you could just drop the old coot. “Need help with dinner?” 

Kes waved him away, as Poe followed him back inside. 

“Papa!” Sam declared, and Poe leaned down to kiss Rey’s cheek and then Sam’s. Sam grabbed his jacket and held on, and Poe scooped him out of his high chair. 

“How’s it going, Threepio? Translating?” 

“Oh, no, sir. Just scanning at the moment. These codexes are so primitive…” 

“Did you see anything out there?” Rey demanded. Now she was holding down the pages for C-3PO. 

“I just pulled up, sweetheart, and didn’t see anything,” Poe promised her, kissing her again. 

"Just one of the new hands, and she's not tall, bald, or remotely close to the window. I went all the way around the house, just to be sure," Finn added. He put a hand on Poe's shoulder and steered him gently to sit before he could consider helping serve dinner. Sam bounced happily in his lap, grabbing his face.

"Nothing but very noisy insects and a reformed stormtrooper. And this scruffy-looking character," Kes agreed, pausing to ruffle Poe's hair after setting a glass of water for him on the table.

“Rude,” Poe said, but winced as Sam grabbed his beard. Okay, maybe he needed a shave. 

Rey still frowned, glaring out at the twilight, looking like she wanted to get up and check herself. 

Poe patted her arm. “Was it a Force vision or something? You’ve had those before. You saw...Snoke, maybe? It’s perfectly reasonable to be freaked out by the idea of them…”

"No. I know Force visions, and this wasn't one of them, unless I'm suddenly getting new ones and that's  _ also  _ a problem," she answered. But instinct told her it wasn't a Force vision, even if reaching out to sense everyone in the vicinity left her with nothing but Finn, Poe, Kes, and Sam—and three of them worrying strongly enough that she hardly needed the Force to sense it.

He'd been  _ right there _ . But where had he gone? 

Kes chuckled. “Pregnancy force visions? Shara thought she smelled weird things sometimes, and maybe with Jedi it’s…” 

Poe thought this was funny, but Rey’s glare shut them up. She rubbed her eyes. “Oh, whatever. I’m too hungry to care.” 

“Sirs? And Mistress Rey,” Threepio said, lifting his arm in that very posh way he had that looked like he was summoning a waiter at a fancy restaurant. “If you don’t mind, I’m having to reconstruct several dead languages at this point to translate these texts. It might be quicker if I go into low power mode and devote my processors to it entirely.” 

Poe waved an arm back. “Sure, Threepio, whatever you like.” 

“Oh, thank you, Admiral. If you should have need of me, a push to my visual cortexes should alert me. Otherwise, I estimate the time to completion at 37 hours, 5 minutes.” 

Kes waited until the droid’s eyes went dark before he snorted, “Okay, but you should have had him move first.” 

“Dad!” Finn scolded. 

“What? You want a protocol droid taking up space in the kitchen for who knows how long? Can’t you move him to the den or somewhere he won’t be in the way? What good is the Force if you— _ thank you _ , Rey.” 

Everyone laughed as Rey lifted the droid and moved him, gently and reverently, to the den, if just to shut her father-in-law up. And, for the moment, she forgot about the eerily familiar figure she thought she had seen at the window. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Year's Eve! 
> 
> We promise this story isn't abandoned, we're just updating slow. Thanks for sticking with us!!

**Author's Note:**

> Running List of OCs:
> 
> **Berno Bey:** Male human, Poe's maternal grandfather.  
**Breha Bey:** Female human, Poe's cousin, of comparable age to Rey and Finn.  
**Coni:** Female human Resistance soldier. Likes illegal tackles in Boloball.  
**Deeks:** Male human ex-stormtrooper, now pilot for the Resistance, complete dork.  
**Jonorai:** Female Twi'lek in charge of the Resistance daycare center.  
**Jura Bey:** Female human, Poe's maternal grandmother.  
**Karlo Dameron:** Male human, Kes' brother.  
**Colonel Lightbridge:** Male human, Republic officer.  
**"Nana" Dameron:** Female human in her late 80s, Kes' mother. Suffers selective dementia.  
**Luka, Flash, and Zero:** Human ex-stormtroopers who now work the Dameron family farm as hired help.  
**Reist:** Nonbinary human Resistance soldier.  
**Dr. Rok Ori:** Male Chiss doctor who specializes in cybernetics and is obnoxious.  
**Rokko:** Female Zabrak tattoo artist.  
**Sall:** Female Bothan physical therapist for the Resistance.  
**Sam Organa Dameron:** Finn's clone rescued from a First Order cloning facility, adopted by Finn, Rey, and Poe. Drools a lot.  
**Sevens:** Nonbinary human ex-stormtrooper now Resistance soldier. Dating Jessika Pava.  
**Dr. Tamo Lan:** Female Ewok doctor of psychology, therapist for ex-stormtroopers.  
**Tano Bey:** Male human, Breha's husband. Childhood friends with Poe.  
**Timons:** Female human ex-First Order tech, was on the officer track before defecting. Major PTSD and anxiety.  
**Torch:** Male Zabrak Resistance soldier. Finn's second in command.
> 
> ...
> 
> Thank you for reading! Please let us know what you like or what we can improve on in the Comments. You can also come bother us on Tumblr at [Maeglinthebold](http://maeglinthebold.tumblr.com/) and [A-singer-of-songs](http://a-singer-of-songs.tumblr.com/).
> 
> As always, a shout-out to commenters and to the very supportive [SWWA](https://starwarswritingalliance.tumblr.com/)! 


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